The Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) announced their nominees for this year’s fashion awards, which will be held in the New York Public Library on June 5th. Obviously, women's fashion rules the industry, especially over the men’s category by way of the press coverage it gains. So, the big CFDA award is that of womenswear designer (equivalent to the best actress in a motion picture Oscar), which includes past winners like, Vera Wang (2005), Carolina Herrera (2004), Narciso Rodriguez (2002, 2003), and Tom Ford (2001).

According to an Associated Press article titled, Designers council names nominees for fashion Oscars, this year’s nominees for womenswear designer include:

Francisco Costa for Calvin Klein, Lazaro Hernandez and Jack McCollough of Proenza Schouler and Marc Jacobs for Marc Jacobs were selected as having made the most outstanding contribution to women's fashion based on their spring and upcoming fall collections.

In my opinion, Costa will win the prestigious award because Jacobs already won the honor in 1997, and the Proenza Schouler designers are still quite new, having recently been honored with an emerging talent award in 2003, so by default, Costa deserves to win because he hasn’t won a CFDA yet.

In addition, he is a great clean, classic designer, which in my opinion is the epitome of what American design is all about. CFDA Executive Director Steven Kolb said in a statement that "This year's nominees and honorees reflect the vitality and variety that is the core of the American fashion industry,” and I believe in Costa, and due to the fact that Costa, who is from Brazil, was recently profiled in the New York Times Magazine by Cathy Horyn, in What comes between Costa and his Calvins?, signifies a great deal.

Other fashion designers that garnered nominations are:

Ralph Lauren, Thom Browne and Cloak's Alexandre Plokhov are the nominees for menswear designer, and Tom Binns, Marc Jacobs for Marc Jacobs and Michael Kors have been nominated for accessory designer, the CFDA said Monday.

The complete list of nominees, which are selected by the CFDA membership, press, retailers and stylists, can be found on CFDA’s website.