Narciso Rodriguez

The Council of Fashion Designers of America again named Narciso Rodriguez, a red carpet favorite of Sarah Jessica Parker and Salma Hayek, as the country's best womenswear designer.

Rodriguez, known for sleek, formfitting gowns, won for the second year in a row. Parker and Calvin Klein, Rodriguez's mentor, handed out the award at yesterday's annual CFDA gala.

Rodriguez, who previously worked for Klein, said that when he left the famous design house 10 years ago to launch his own label, a supportive Klein told him that fashion was a difficult business in which true success was rare.

"A few nights ago, he (Klein) said that I was doing it and I was doing it well," said a teary Rodriguez.

Parker, the host for fashion's equivalent of the Academy Awards, ironically didn't include a Rodriguez gown in her wardrobe for the evening. Instead, she wore a dress designed by each of the gala's three chairpeople: a strapless pink and white polka-dot dress by Carolina Herrera, a nude-coloured dress with a white sequin hem by Vera Wang and a black dress with spaghetti straps and a handkerchief hem by Klein.

She arrived on the red carpet at the New York Public Library in a rose-colored Oscar de la Renta with a jeweled pin at the hip.

When Adrien Brody presented Michael Kors with the menswear design award, the Oscar winner quipped, "Security was tight. They checked my label at the door."

Renee Zellweger said she wore elegant long gloves to complement her ivory-colored gown by Herrera because her date, Vogue editor at large Andre Leon Talley, who received a fashion journalism award, is a fan of a lady in white gloves.

Picking a gown for a fashion event is no easier or harder than choosing other red-carpet outfits, Zellweger said. ``I don't really know my look - but this dress fit and it's so pretty."

Talley, though, knew how to describe Zellweger. "You are my postmodern Audrey Hepburn," he said.

The CFDA awards illustrated how the worlds of New York fashion and Hollywood celebrity have come together as one. Claire Danes arrived on the arm of Zac Posen and Rachel Weisz came with Rodriguez. Marisa Tomei escorted the two young designers of Proenza Schouler, Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez, who received the Swarovski Perry Ellis award as the top newcomers in ready-to-wear. Read more...