ACE- It’s All About the Accessories

Marilyn Kirschner’s Daily Fashion Report blog today is all about the 10th annual Accessories Council Excellence Awards event last night, created in 1996 as a way to “pay homage to those
individuals and groups that have made great strides in raising the awareness of
the accessories industry. The purpose of the awards is to celebrate those who
have had a positive impact on accessory sales during the prior year.”

Winners this year included Fendi for ‘Brand of the
Year’;
“O”, The Oprah Magazine, ‘Magazine of the Year’,
Rachel Zoe won a
‘Fashion Influencer’ Award (you just can’t get away from her LA boho clones at the moment); Tom Ford won an award for Accessory Brand Launch; and Jennifer Lopez for the overall ACE award, which I can only assume translates to the award for the individual who has spent the most on jewellery this year. Suzy Menkes won the Marylou Luther Award for Fashion Journalism, and apparently turned up sporting a cane- necessary due to a broken toe but conveniently packaged as a new accessory.

The most interesting part of the report however is a quote from Ms Menkes who ‘ was thrilled to
be given the award and observed, “Accessories are where it’s at now.
Who thinks about the clothes? It’s all about the accessories.” ‘ - As one of the most important critical voices in fashion, a statement like that is one well worth listening to.

Other points of interest in the article include how many of the guests factored the
theme of the evening into their choice of dress-

"Many of those who wore black (and they were out in force), used the
non color as a perfect foil to make their interesting bags or shoes stand out…
Proving that certain accessories never go out of style and always look great,
the one woman who really caught my eye was wearing a simple knee length scoop
neck black dress and accessorized with masses of long pearls (another ongoing
‘trend’ as of late)."

read the full report
the Accessories Council