[To Iman] "I can not thank you enough for being here, I'm so grateful. The fact that you're here right now, the fact that you know who I am at all. You're iconic, you're groundbreaking, you're breathtaking and I thank you for all that you are and continue to be. So thank you so much for being here."
It's such an honor to be here tonight, on this stage, accepting this award that has been received by some of the most awe-inspiring, indelible forces that have undoubtedly change the fashion game forever, and I hope to do a fraction of what they all have done.
I just want to thank the CFDA, thank you all, thank you so much, thank you Vera [Wang], thank you for having me here. Thank you for this beautiful moment that I am incredibly grateful for, this is truly a dream come true for me. I know this is an award that I'm accepting, I realize that and therfore it is ok to talk about myself, which I'm sometimes awkward about. Before I do that, I feel like it's important to acknowledge that it's been a rough couple of years for everyone. I know the fashion industry, but more specifically the emerging designers and the brands along with their teams and staff, many of which we honor tonight, have been significantly impacted. With that being said, I don't know about you but, I feel in this room a sense of hope, of inovation, of ingenuity and a true sense of togetherness and support. Tonight, make no mistake, we also celebrate you. You and your ability to evolve, adapt, to reinvent yourselves over and over again. Your genuis ability to transform these moments into something new and something meaningful.
Fashion, in many ways, has kind of been that for me. It's been a creative outlet and kind of an extension of all the reasons why I love acting. I was a really, really shy kid, and I kind of still am, but fashion did something special for me. It gave me the extraordinary gift of transformation, the ability to become and embody all these different characters, and be literally anyone I wanted to be.
Thankfully, when I was 14, I found my co-director of sorts. One who saw what I did and sometimes more than I could have ever imagined on my own, that being Law Roach.
My fashion soulmate, and constant inspiration. Thank you for pushing me to see all of myself and teaching me how to do so fearlessly.
Every time we get dressed, we treat it like a film. We bring to new life a new protagonist, one with their own narrative, their own backstory, their own personality, so that the shy little girl in me can live out all of the things I dream through them. And the more I do it, the more it seems I'm just actively discovering all of the different facets of the woman I already am.
Fashion and the many people in this room, especially those smaller brands that dressed me before anyone else did, helped me find that. And for that I am forever grateful. Thank you, thank you again for this moment that I will absolutely never forget. I am incredibly grateful, thank you so much."
-Â Zendaya's acceptance speech for the 2021 CFDA Fashion Icon Award.
