Arnold Scaasi, who has dressed celebrated women from Barbara Bush to Barbra Streisand and Mamie Eisenhower to Mary Tyler Moore, is the 1996 recipient of the CFDA's lifetime achievement award.
Scaasi and a dozen others in the industry were honored in New York in February by the Council of Fashion Designers of America.Scaasi, 63, created 450 collections and 18,000 original samples in the last 40 years and recently launched Scaasi Nightlife, a ready-to-wear line. He is a native of Montreal.
Helmut Lang, an Austrian designer who shows in Paris, received the CFDA's international designer award. Elsa Peretti, an Italian by birth who created "diamonds by the yard" for Tiffany & Co., which sold two miles of them in their first year, is the CFDA's accessory designer of the year.
Shoe designers had a special place among honorees. Kenneth Cole received the Dom Perignon award for humanitarian leadership, and Kari Sigerson and Miranda Morrison, creators of Sigerson Morrison funky footwear, received the Perry Ellis award for new talent in accessories design. Other new talent awards went to Daryl Kerrigan for Daryl K, women's wear, and Gene Meyer, menswear.
Donna Karan and Ralph Lauren are women's wear and men's wear designers of the year, respectively.
Richard Martin and Harold Koda, curators of the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, were honored for furthering fashion as art and culture, and New York Times fashion critic Amy Spindler received the Eugenia Sheppard award for fashion journalism.
Awards are based on balloting by members of the fashion media or selection by the CFDA board of directors.