In the music industry, there’s the Grammys. For actors, the Oscars. And in the world of fashion, the British Fashion Awards is the prestigious award ceremony dedicated to celebrating the contributions of British designers, creatives and models to the international fashion scene since 1989.
This year’s Fashion Awards are taking place on November 23rd at The London Coliseum and, like every year previous, is sure to be a glamorous event. With the likes of Emma Watson, Ellie Goulding, David Gandy, the Beckhams, Naomi Campbell, Nick Grimshaw, Anna Wintour, Cara Delevingne, Harry Styles and many other famous faces all in attendance, it’s set to be the best dressed red carpet this year.
Of the fifteen awards to be presented, the award categories feature womenswear and menswear designer, model of the year, creative campaign of the year and brand of the year. Defined as “a leading British ready-to-wear designer who has been instrumental in enhancing fashion in the past year,” the nominees for womenswear designer of the year are Christopher Kane, J.W. Anderson and Victoria Beckham, who won the award for brand of the year at the British Fashion Awards 2014. The nominees for menswear designer are E. Tautz, Tom Ford and a second nomination for J.W. Anderson.
With last year’s winner of model of the year being Cara Delevingne, this year’s recipient has large shoes to fill! The nominees are Georgia May Jagger, Jourdan Dunn and Malaika Firth. With Jagger most recognised for her extensive work with beauty brand Rimmel, Dunn has been a feature on catwalks since the age of sixteen and is part of the inner circle of model bffs that include Cara, Karlie Kloss and Kendall Jenner. Malaika Firth however, is relatively knew to the fashion scene experiencing her runway-breakthrough with the Spring/Summer 2014 Fashion Week collections, walking more than 40 shows!
As for creative campaign and brand of the year, nominees, as to be expected, include big name fashion houses Burberry, Celine and Givenchy for the former award and Alexander McQueen, Anya Hindmarch, Stella McCartney and another nod to Burberry for the latter award mentioned.
While the winners won’t be revealed until after this article has been published, some categories have already announced the recipient of the prize. Most notably, this year’s outstanding achievement award will go to Karl Lagerfeld. The award goes to a fashion figure for unrivalled contributions to the fashion industry, and it is no question that Karl Lagerfeld is a worthy winner. As head designer and creative director at both Chanel and Fendi, this year also saw the first Karl Lagerfeld store, a store exclusively for his own label, opened in Qatar.
Though his career hasn’t been without controversy – he has famously been pied by PETA and caused Anna Wintour to walk out of his Milan Fashion Week show in 1993 due to his creative decision to hire strippers and adult film stars to model his collection – he is widely respected in the fashion industry despite these gaffes. As quite possibly the busiest man in fashion, this award is well deserved and recognises Lagerfeld’s positive contributions.
If the politics of the fashion industry or the excitement of the awards doesn’t tempt you to tune in, at least watch the red carpet. Trust me, it will be just as good as any runway show!
