Inside the ACE Awards 30th Anniversary at The Pierre Hotel


The Accessories Council Excellence Awards returned to The Pierre hotel in New York City on Tuesday night for its 30th anniversary, welcoming honorees, including Coach chief executive officer and brand president Todd Kahn, Julia Fox, Tamron Hall and more trailblazers in the accessories world.

NEW YORK, NEW YORK - MAY 05: Betsey Johnson attends the 2026 Accessories Council Excellence Awards at The Pierre Hotel on May 05, 2026 in New York City. (Photo by Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images for Accessories Council)

Betsey Johnson attends the 2026 Accessories Council Excellence Awards at The Pierre hotel on May 5 in New York City.

Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images for Accessories Council

Betsey Johnson, who did her signature split on the red carpet, was on hand to pass on the Betsey Johnson Iconoclast award — she was the inaugural winner last year — to her friend Julia Fox, who attended with her five-year-old son Valentino. Fox dressed up in a yellow strapless dress by Johnson for the occasion, a revived vintage garment with a full skirt, tiny blue bows and pink accents.

NEW YORK, NEW YORK - MAY 05: Julia Fox (C) attends the 2026 Accessories Council Excellence Awards at The Pierre Hotel on May 05, 2026 in New York City. (Photo by Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images for Accessories Council)

Julia Fox (center) at the 2026 Accessories Council Excellence Awards at The Pierre hotel on May 5 in New York City.

Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images for Accessories Council

On being named an iconoclast by Johnson, Fox told WWD, “It feels very affirming. Betsey Johnson has probably been the first real designer that I ever became aware of. I would go to her store on Madison Avenue every day for fun with my friends. I actually wore one of her dresses for my eighth-grade graduation. So to have her recognize me now feels like a full-circle moment, like one of those pinch-me moments. Whatever I did, I must’ve done something right. I’m just so honored to be here.”

Johnson recalled being introduced to Fox only a couple weeks prior and telling her creative director James, “I love that girl, who is that girl? She’s like a little me. She’s got the energy and the enthusiasm and the smarts. Julia is perfect, she’s going to be my muse and my inspiration. You’re going to be ‘our girl.’ I want you as my girl.”

Fox is up for the job: “I will be your girl until I’m a 60-year-old woman.”

NEW YORK, NEW YORK - MAY 05: (L-R) Blake Mycoskie and Jaimie Alexander attend the 2026 Accessories Council Excellence Awards at The Pierre Hotel on May 05, 2026 in New York City. (Photo by Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images for Accessories Council)

Actress Jaimie Alexander (right) presented Blake Mycoskie (left) with the social impact award at the 2026 ACE Awards.

Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images for Accessories Council

Blake Mycoskie, founder of Enough, was honored with the social impact award. The brand creates bracelets reading “Enough,” and 100 percent of the profits benefit mental health organizations. He discussed his journey toward starting Enough and how special it is to return to the ACE Awards 17 years after winning brand of the year for the shoe brand Toms.

“I sold the company, and then I had a very, very challenging seven years, mental health journey,” Mycoskie said. “And over that time, I ultimately had my biggest healing and it was around this idea that I’m enough and you’re enough, and we’re all enough, and it’s not our accomplishments or our achievements that define our self worth. It’s our birthright to have that word.”

NEW YORK, NEW YORK - MAY 05: (L-R) Tamron Hall and Fern Mallis attend the 2026 Accessories Council Excellence Awards at The Pierre Hotel on May 05, 2026 in New York City. (Photo by Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images for Accessories Council)

Tamron Hall and Fern Mallis attend the 2026 Accessories Council Excellence Awards at The Pierre hotel on May 5 in New York City.

Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images for Accessories Council

The ceremony also included a recognition for broadcaster, journalist, talk show host and author Tamron Hall as style influencer, with New York Fashion Week creator Fern Mallis on hand to present the award. Mallis emphasized how Hall keeps fashion as a strong focus on her show and spotlights emerging designers. In her acceptance speech, Hall recounted some of the accessories that have been special to her and her family through the years.

“Accessories, they give us confidence, they empower us in these beautiful ways,” Hall said. “They hold legacy. They hold memories. Some of the big brands here tonight started with an individual who believed in something, and that brand, hundreds of years later, turned into something enormous, something that’s standing on Fifth Avenue that perhaps they never even knew in their lifetime could exist. Or the smaller brands, that tonight who are here who are betting on themselves, who are betting in the desires that we have to feel confident when we walk into any room.”

Nata Dvir and Sara Blakely at the 2026 ACE Awards.

Nata Dvir and Sara Blakely at the 2026 ACE Awards.

Left: Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images for Accessories Council. Right: Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for Accessories Council

Nata Dvir, chief merchandising officer at Macy’s, took home the merchant of the year award. Dvir, who has worked at the department store company for 21 years, said in her speech, “Finding the perfect black suit is great, but it’s the shoes, the handbag, the belt, the jewelry that turns something you wear into something you remember. That’s the power of this category.”

Additional honorees included Monica Rich Kosann, founder of her self-named jewelry label, for brand innovation; EssilorLuxottica for pioneering spirit, accepted by president Americas Fabrizio Ugozzoni; Marissa Collections for specialty retailer, accepted by CEO and co-owner Jay Hartington, and Sara Blakely, founder of Sneex, for innovation. The evening’s legacy honorees, recognizing brands celebrating milestones, included Marcolin (65 years); Melinda Maria Jewels (20 years), and Nanis (35 years).



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