Faith Thornburg of Indianapolis wins the ELLE Magazine Design Award at NY Fashion Week

Related Media

Faith Thornburg's collection walks down the runway of NY Fashion Week

• Faith Thornburg reacts emotionally to winning the ELLE Magazine Design Award at NY Fashion Week

Indianapolis native and Savannah College of Art and Design fashion graduate Faith Thornburg won the Elle Magazine Design Award Friday, September 9 during NY's Fashion Week.

ELLE Editor-in-Chief Roberta Myers presented Faith with a $25,000 grant.

Faith was one of 22 SCAD grads who presented their senior collections under the tents at Lincoln Center in New York during Fashion/Next, ELLE Magazine's annual showcase of the best and brightest emerging designers, sponsored by Maybelline

Faith's "white gowns with floral appliques and underskirts wowed the audience" according to the fashion blog, racked. com. The only bridal designer of the group, Faith's fashion memories, according to an interview Faith did with ELLE, go back to elementary school, when "I would take the sheets off my bed and drape them around my body, pretending I was walking down the runway at Fashion Week." The best part of her job? "Seeing a bride shed a tear when she sees herself in the dress I created for her; it gives me the warm fuzzies!"

The show sported a spectacular front row -- in addition to SCAD President Paula Wallace were the former First Daughter, Jenna Bush, supermodel Iman, Victoria Secret model Karolina Kurkova, actress and "Dancing with the Stars" dancer Julianne Hough, Grammy Award-winning jazz singer Corinne Bailey Rae, a group of New York Rangers, as well as some of the head honchos from Saks Fifth Avenue, Bergdorf Goodman and Neiman Marcus.