Members of the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) have given themselves a difficult task: choosing among 2009 Womenswear Designer of the Year nominees Marc Jacobs, Laura and Kate Mulleavy of Rodarte, and Narciso Rodriguez. Jacobs, who will also be honored with this year's CFDA International Award for his achievements as creative director of Louis Vuitton, is already a seven-time CFDA award winner, having won for womenswear design (1992 and 1997), menswear (2002), and accessory design (1998/1999, 2003, and 2005, with another nomination this year). He also received the Perry Ellis Award for promising young design talent in 1987. Rodriguez has three CFDAs at home. He pulled out back-to-back Womenswear Designer of the Year wins in 2002 and 2003 and received the 1997 Perry Ellis Award for Womenswear. While both Jacobs and Rodriguez have made extraordinary strides, designwise and businesswise, since their last womenswear wins, we have a hunch that the bright ray of quirky/sublime Pasadena sunshine that is the sisters Mulleavy may just outshine them both come the June awards ceremony.

Yes, it was only last year that the Rodarte designers took home the CFDA's Swarovski (née Perry Ellis) Award for Womenswear, and the CFDA likes to see a few years elapse before offering up the big prize (Proenza Schouler wunderkinds Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez won the Swarovski in 2003 and shared designer of the year honors with Oscar de la Renta four years later), but the Mulleavys have never been ones for precedent. Self-taught and as likely to be inspired by artist Robert Smithson as Star Wars (in the same collection, mind you), they consistently astonish with clothing that is at once otherworldly and influential. "I think that we jumped right into the idea of designing, but at the same time, there's so much to learn every season that the learning process will span our career," Kate Mulleavy told us after the spring 2009 Rodarte show. "We're always learning."

Click "continued..." for the full slate of 2009 CFDA award nominees and special honorees.

Womenswear Designer of the Year
2009 Nominees:
Marc Jacobs
Kate & Laura Mulleavy for Rodarte
Narciso Rodriguez

Menswear Designer of the Year
2009 Nominees:
Michael Bastian
Scott Sternberg for Band of Outsiders
Italo Zucchelli for Calvin Klein

Accessory Designer of the Year
2009 Nominees:
Marc Jacobs
Jack McCollough & Lazaro Hernandez for Proenza Schouler
Vera Wang

Swarovski Award for Womenswear
2009 Nominees:
Thakoon Panichgul
Alexander Wang
Jason Wu

Swarovski Award for Menswear
2009 Nominees:
Patrik Ervell
Robert Geller
Tim Hamilton

Swarovski Award for Accessory Design
2009 Nominees:
Justin Giunta for Subversive Jewelry
Alejandro Ingelmo
Albertus Q. Swanepoel

HONOREE AWARDS
Geoffrey Beene Lifetime Achievement Award
2009 Honoree: Anna Sui

Eugenia Sheppard Award
2009 Honoree: Ed Nardoza, Editor-in-Chief, Women's Wear Daily

International Award
2009 Honoree: Marc Jacobs for Louis Vuitton

Board of Directors' Special Tribute
2009 Honoree: First Lady Michelle Obama

Eleanor Lambert Award
2009 Honoree: Jim Moore, Creative Director, GQ