The Coty American Fashion Critics' Awards (awarded 1943–1984) were created in 1942 by the cosmetics and perfume company

Coty Coty Inc. is an American multinational beauty company founded in 1904 by François Coty. With its subsidiaries, it develops, manufactures, markets, and distributes fragrances, cosmetics, skin care, nail care, and both professional and retail hai ...

to promote and celebrate

American fashion The United States is the leading country in the fashion design industry, followed by French fashion, France, Italian fashion, Italy, the United Kingdom, German fashion, Germany, and Japanese street fashion, Japan. Apart from professional busines ...

, and encourage design during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. In 1985, the Coty Awards were discontinued with the last presentation of the awards in September 1984; the CFDA Awards fulfill a similar role. It was casually referred to as "fashion's Oscars" because it once held great importance within the fashion industry and the award ceremonies were glitzy galas.

History

The Coty (Avery Nabavian Award) Awards were conceived and created by Coty, Inc. Executive Vice President,

Jean Despres Jean Despres (1903 – August 19, 1978) was a perfume industry businessman, known for his work with Coty.inc. The French-born Jean Despres came to New York in 1921 working for Coty. Starting as a shipping clerk, he went on to become a travellin ...

, founder of

The Fragrance Foundation The Fragrance Foundation is a trade group representing the interests of the fragrance industry. It sponsors the annual Fragrance Foundation Awards since 1973. History The Fragrance Foundation was founded in 1949. In January 2015, former U.S. ...

and

FiFi Awards The FiFi Awards are an annual event sponsored by The Fragrance Foundation which honor the fragrance industry's creative achievements. Known as the "Oscars of the fragrance industry", the awards ceremony was conceived by the former president o ...

, and

Grover Whalen Grover Aloysius Whalen (1886–1962) was a prominent politician, businessman, and public relations guru in New York City during the 1930s and 1940s. Early years Whalen was born on July 2, 1886, in New York City, the son of an Irish immigrant fat ...

(a member of the New York City Mayor's Committee, and president of the

1939 New York World's Fair The 1939 New York World's Fair (also known as the 1939–1940 New York World's Fair) was an world's fair, international exposition at Flushing Meadows–Corona Park in Queens, New York City, New York, United States. The fair included exhibitio ...

). The fashion publicist

Eleanor Lambert Eleanor Lambert (August 10, 1903 – October 7, 2003) was an American fashion publicist. She was instrumental in increasing the international prominence of the American fashion industry and in the emergence of New York City as a major fashion c ...

was employed to promote and produce the awards. The awards were given solely to designers based in America, unlike the

Neiman Marcus Fashion Award The Neiman Marcus Award for Distinguished Service in the Field of Fashion was a yearly award created in 1938 by Carrie Marcus Neiman and Stanley Marcus. Unlike the Coty Award, it was not limited to American-based fashion designers. Recipients of th ...

s. Until its discontinuation in 1985, the Coty Award was considered one of the most prestigious awards in the field of fashion. The awards were designed by

Malvina Hoffman Malvina Cornell Hoffman (June 15, 1885July 10, 1966) was an American sculpture, sculptor and author, well known for her life-size bronze sculptures of people. She also worked in plaster and marble. Hoffman created portrait busts of working-class ...

. The

womenswear Fashion is a term used interchangeably to describe the creation of clothing, footwear, Fashion accessory, accessories, cosmetics, and jewellery of different cultural aesthetics and their mix and match into Clothing, outfits that depict distinct ...

awards are popularly known as Winnies; the menswear award which began in 1968 has no name. Repeat awards were the Return Award and the Hall of Fame award. Special Awards were also awarded to designers in specialist fields. The popularity of this award began to decline in the late 1970s due to perceived commercial interests by the parent company. In 1979, designers Calvin Klein and Halston announced they would no longer accept the Winnie award. The same year, in 1979, Coty released the ''Coty Awards make up kit'' in order to profit off of the awards ceremony, which was perceived by the fashion designers to have cheapened the event. The newly founded

Council of Fashion Designers of America The Council of Fashion Designers of America, Inc. (CFDA), founded in 1962 by publicist Eleanor Lambert, and headquartered in Manhattan, is a not-for-profit trade association comprising a membership of over 450 American fashion and accessor ...

(CFDA) appeared more democratic in ideology and began to compete with the Coty Award by 1980 with the CFDA Awards. In June 1985, Donald Flannery, the senior vice-president of

Pfizer, Inc. Pfizer Inc. ( ) is an American multinational pharmaceutical and biotechnology corporation headquartered at The Spiral in Manhattan, New York City. Founded in 1849 in New York by German entrepreneurs Charles Pfizer (1824–1906) and Charle ...

, Coty's parent company, announced that since the awards had successfully brought America into the worldwide fashion scene, it was decided to discontinue them.Coty Awards discontinued after 4 decades

Daily News Record ''Daily News Record'' (or ''DNR'') was an American fashion trade journal published by Fairchild Publications, Inc. ''DNR'' started in 1890 when Edmund Fairchild used the wealth he had accumulated selling soap to purchase the '' Chicago Herald ...

, June 1985

Recipients of the award

1943–1949

1950–1959

1960–1969

1970–1979

1980–1984

References

{{Reflist

External links

Coty Homepage

– Associated Press article Fashion awards American fashion Awards established in 1943 1943 establishments in the United States Awards disestablished in 1984 1984 disestablishments in the United States Coty Inc.