As we enter the final weeks of preparation for the fifth annual Charleston Fashion Week®, we are thrilled to announce our most stellar front row to date. CFW will host some of the most influential names in the fashion industry, who will serve as judges in the five-night Emerging Designer Competition: East.

New York Fashion Week creator and former VP of IMG Fashion Fern Mallis joins the CFW Fashion Panel on Saturday, March 26, to help select the CFW 2011 Emerging Designer: East. Now president of Fern Mallis LLC, this visionary is widely credited for establishing 7th on Sixth, which organized, centralized, and modernized American runways, allowing our designers to compete head-on with Milan and Paris and forever changing the global fashion business.

Other front-row headliners on the Saturday evening Fashion Panel include Elle fashion news director and returning judge Anne Slowey, Style.com editor-at-large and Harper’s Bazaar contributing editor Derek Blasberg, Gilt Groupe cofounder Alexis Maybank, and Mad Men costume designer Janie Bryant.

On the nightly judge roster are SocialPrimer.com founder and former Bottega Veneta global VP of PR and special events K. Cooper Ray and Army Wives costume buyer Andrea Serrano. CFW alums and designers Mychael Knight of Atlanta and Marysia Dobranska Reeves will also help select the four finalists who will move on to showcase their collections during Saturday’s Fashion Finale for the chance to win the Grand Prize valued at $30,000.

Be sure to join us under the tents for five nights of must-see fashion on the runway and the fashion elite front and center.

To buy tickets to Charleston Fashion Week®, click here.

For more information on the CFW Fashion Panel, click here.

For details on the Emerging Designer Competition: East, click here.

To get the full CFW schedule, click here.