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The Council of Fashion Designers of America will announce their 2016 CFDA Award winners for womenswear, menswear, and accessories tonight, but all eyes are on the honorees category — the most anticipated one being the Fashion Icon announcement.
Not only is the Fashion Icon Award intermittent (the CFDA didn't give one out from 2006 to 2009, and took a year off in 2013), but the winners are always entirely unexpected. Well, until this year.
Earlier this morning in an equally unexpected declaration, Vogue's fashion critic Nicole Phelps advocated in favor of the one and only contender for the award (in her opinion), Kim Kardashian West. Phelps cited Kim's influence on fashion, most notably her role in popularizing brands like Balmain, as the reasoning behind this decision. After all, Kanye West did tweet that Olivier Rousteing's fall 2016 collection was designed with his wife in mind. "[This] is not an endorsement, but love her or love to hate her, the Kim Kardashian West effect is real," Phelps said in the piece.
But as soon Vogue took to Twitter with their prediction, their mentions blew up in support of another influential Kim — hip-hop's risk-taking Queen Bee Lil' Kim to be exact. We're no strangers to the rapper's influence on both fashion and music today, and apparently neither is Twitter.
Users took to Vogue's mentions with tweets in support of Lil' Kim's nomination immediately after it went up.
@voguemagazine @KimKardashian @CFDA #LilKimFashionIconAward pic.twitter.com/IsbbQGaxJ8
— Lil Kim's Punani (@LilKimBr) March 16, 2016
@voguemagazine @KimKardashian @CFDA NO LIL KIM THE QUEEN BEE DESERVES IT
— NIQQA MINAJ (@NIQQAMINAJ) March 16, 2016
Kim Kardashian West's fans also commented on the reality television star's potential win tonight.
Most of fast fashion is made up of watered down versions of looks & silhouettes worn by KKW. She sets trends. pic.twitter.com/maByFk5o7M
— KimKanyeKimYe (@KimKanyeKimYeFC) March 16, 2016
The truth is, Balmain's neutral tones and knee-high boots have not necessarily been a hit with critics recently. In fact, Phelps wasn't too keen on the Kim-inspired collection either. The CFDA is known for nominating serious fashion risk-takers, like a Swarovski crystal "naked" dress-wearing Rihanna, who accepted her CFDA Fashion Icon Award in 2014. That same dress was something Lil' Kim would have worn to sit front row at Giorgio Armani.
There's no telling who will receive the coveted award tonight or if there will even be one, but deep down, I think we all know who the real winner is. Twitter might be onto something.