NEW YORK—The Accessories Council has announced the winners of their 5th Annual Design Excellence Awards at the Fashionphile showroom here. Eighteen awards were bestowed on dynamic products that ranged in price from $40 to $9,000 retail. Eyewear and sunwear products were once again among the categories honored. A range of fashion accessories companies in fine jewelry, fashion jewelry, handbags, general accessories and footwear were also included as were products embodying social impact, sustainability, and tech and innovation.

The Accessories Council launched the Design Excellence Awards in 2019 to expand the recognition of outstanding products and the awards are intended to drive retail sales for the important holiday shopping season.

In the category of Eyewear - Optical, there was a tie for the DEA winner, recognizing David Beckham style 7116 (from Safilo) and Vogue style 0VO5527 (from EssilorLuxottica). In the sunwear category, the DEA winner was Lanvin LNV664S (from Marchon).

A look at all the winning 2023 DEA products is here.
 
The prestigious Hall of Fame Award, which recognizes one single iconic product or brand that has stood the test of time as determined by the Accessories Council Board, was awarded to Lucchese recognizing their 140th anniversary of Made in the USA footwear brand.
 
The Circana “Top Item” Award recognizes the top dollar volume item in the category that has seen the strongest recovery vs. 2020, in NPD’s tracked retail universe. This year’s winner is Marc Jacobs “The Tote Bag.” The bag, which was designed by Marc Jacobs himself, is available in a variety of materials and sizes.
 
The FashionGo “Best of Best” Award went to BrunnaCo, a California based responsible and ethical fashion brand founded by Helga Ida Ayu. The bags are handcrafted, mainly by women in Indonesia, allowing them to work from home. 

Each DEA winner receives an “AC Seal” that can be used on products for the life of the item such as trade shows, annual reports, social media and more. Finalists were featured in the Fall issue of AC Magazine, which was published the first week of October, and the winners will be featured in the Winter issue of AC Magazine, which will be published the first week of January.

Finalists were selected by the Accessories Council board of directors and the junior board of directors. Then voting was opened to determine the winners. The Accessories council said it received nearly 10,000 votes from individuals.
 
Details about the 2022 A/C DEA winners are posted here.