Elle Fashion Next Showcased FIT's Most Promising Young Designers

Every year, Elle partners with one of the country's top design schools to give their graduating students a chance to show their creations at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week and awards the best talent with school grants. "It's the third year of Fashion Next. It's Elle's opportunity to go out to a design school in this country and to give them a chance to really upside their business," explained Joe Zee, Creative Director of Elle. T

his season, they partnered with the Fashion Institute Of Technology (FIT). "We have three winners. We have two $25,000 grant recipients and then we have a People's Choice winner, so I hope everyone will go onto Elle.com and pick their favorite designer. That person gets a $10,000 grant," said Robbie Meyers, Editor-in-Chief of Elle. On hand to help make the final decision was designer and Elle Fashion Next judge, Wes Gordon.

"I'm so excited to do this. I'm taking it really seriously because these kids put so much work into it and they've done a really amazing job. I know how much it means to win or compete for these awards,' he told us.

This Elle Fashion Next Spring 2013 fashion show drew a big crowd, including Christina Ricci, Cheryl Tiegs, Peter Som, Alex Chung, and Leigh Lezark, all wanting to get a glimpse of what these young designers present as the next big thing. "Elle is really about young designers. The amazing thing about working with student's is it's pure creativity," Meyers told us.