(All photos: UnBeige)

Designer Ralph Rucci, UnBeige's all-time favorite fashion icon, is the 2009 recipient of the Pratt Institute Fashion Icon Award. Pratt President Thomas F. Schutte will present Rucci with the award this evening at the 2009 Pratt fashion show, which will feature the best work of the school's graduating seniors. "We are thrilled to honor Ralph Rucci with the 2009 Fashion Icon Award," said Rosie DePasquale, chair of Pratt's Fashion Design Department, in a press release. "The students graduating this year have been following Ralph's work since they first visited his atelier as sophomores and learned a few of his couture methods." Past Pratt Fashion Icons include Narciso Rodriguez and Diane von Furstenberg. Rucci's win comes on the heels of a triumphant 2008, in which he took home the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Award for fashion design, was the subject of a David Boatman-directed documentary, and, after being chosen as the Mercedes-Benz Presents Designer, ended the spring collections at New York Fashion Week with a black silk tulle bang.