BFC outstanding achievement in fashion design
There was only one person who this year’s outstanding achievement award could go to. The death in February of Alexander McQueen, four-time winner of the British designer of the year award, has cast a long shadow over the fashion industry this year, and last night was no exception. The awards ceremony began with a short film made by McQueen’s friend and collaborator Nick Knight, starring some of McQueen’s most iconic designs, with a soundtrack by Björk, who sang at the St Paul’s cathedral memorial service in September. Knight said he wanted the film “to speak in some way about the dark and the light contained within Lee, and within us all”.
Dress, £230, by McQ, my-wardrobe.com Photograph: PR company handout
British designer of the year
The most prestigious award of the night – and 37-year-old Philo was the deserved winner. In just three full seasons she has transformed flat-lining Parisian fashion house Céline into a white-hot property. She performed a similar trick at Chloé before. Those who wear her expensive minimalist designs do so with perceptible smugness. Her catwalk shows in Paris are so unmissable that prissy fashion editors even take a back-row seat. Consequently the high street is enthralled but finds the label frustratingly hard to rip off. Philo-philes are currently excited about Céline’s newly launched “five perfect trousers” collection.
She beat: London fashion week luminaries Christopher Kane and Erdem.
Trousers, £320, by Céline, from matchesfashion.com Photograph: PR company handout
British menswear designer
Grant has been running bespoke tailoring house Norton & Sons on Savile Row for the last five years. Two seasons ago he relaunched the defunct E Tautz label, which has effectively become the ready-to-wear branch of the house. Once the favourite label of Winston Churchill, E Tautz is now firmly back on the industry radar. It helps that Grant is one half of British fashion’s lo-fi power couple (his girlfriend is accessory designer Katie Hillier). Under his stewardship, E Tautz has become the dapper label for a whole new generation.
He beat: the established almost-old guard Christopher Bailey, Margaret Howell and Paul Smith. Those labels sell more, but Tautz has the momentum. Photograph: Ray Tang/Rex Features
British style
The only accolade voted for by the public. Ms Chung was the not-so-surprising winner. And those of you rolling your eyes, consider this: Chung can practically start trends by breathing on them, she has designed a shockingly good collection for Madewell by J Crew in the US, and her Peter Pan collars and flat shoes constantly make other red carpeters look like designer-clad sleepwalkers. In short she is minister for British fashion and we don’t even pay her. Not happy? Tough. Lines are closed and your vote won’t count.
She beat: Among others, post-Potter Emma Watson, pap-friendly Daisy Lowe, and the No 10 chic of Samantha Cameron. Photograph: Bennett Raglin/WireImage
Digital innovation
A whole new category was created this year for Burberry, in recognition of the label’s quest to be seen as a multi-platform brand rather than just a fashion label. Under Christopher Bailey, the brand is YouTubing, livestreaming and iPadding to its heart’s content. Next year’s innovation is Burberry Bespoke – a personalised service that will allow customers to order and customise their trench coat online, which will theoretically offer more than 12m individual permutations of the design.
They beat: no one else was nominated. The implication is that competitors are luddites by comparison. Photograph: Heathcliff O'Malley/Rex Featur
Emerging talent – accessories
The least well-known name to make it on to the podium. El Odeh was born in Germany, but moved to Britain 11 years ago and hooked up with the Fashion East gang. He made his name as an avant-garde jewellery designer – think pearl-trimmed “ear cuffs” worn behind the ear, hearing-aid style – and counts Karl Lagerfeld among his clients. Now he has diversified into sunglasses and clothes, putting armour-style silver patches on jeans for Swedish label Acne.
He beat: Charlotte Olympia, shoe designer, and fine jewellery designer Jessica McCormack, who describes her work as “miniature sculpture”.
Necklace, £156, by Husam El Odeh, from asos.com Photograph: PR
Model
British by default, Bardot-esque Stone was born in Berlin to a Dutch mother and a British father. She is famous beyond the fashion industry for having bigger boobs than is usual for a catwalk model (F cups, according to the cover of Love magazine) and for marrying comedian David Walliams. She can boast a staggering number of catwalk appearances and continually wins huge advertising campaigns including Calvin Klein, H&M and Revlon. An entire issue of the prestigious Paris edition of Vogue was dedicated to her last year. Kate Moss is the only other model who draws such universal devotion from the industry, and Stone currently has her on the proverbial ropes.
She beat: the Zoolander-made-flesh male supermodel David Gandy and posh traditional beauty Rosie Huntington-Whiteley. Photograph: Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images
Emerging talent – ready to wear
This design duo – English Edward Meadham and French-born Benjamin Kirchhoff – perfectly encapsulate what leftfield British fashion is all about. Saint Martins graduates who came on to the London fashion week calendar as part of the Fashion East design umbrella, they were awarded catwalk sponsorship, which has enabled them to show alone for the last two seasons. Their collections are brooding, angsty and divisive: last season’s bonkers Courtney Love Riot Grrrls fest left some of the audience perplexed, others gushing. Wear it and prepare to be stared at.
They beat: Mary Katrantzou, whose lampshade skirts are currently turning heads, and patchwork King Michael van der Ham. Photograph: PR
Designer brand
If there is a Guardian-reading woman on your train carrying a smart, recognisable but discreet handbag, odds-on it’s a Mulberry. The brand set up in Somerset in the 1970s has reinvented itself as the go-to name for quirky, quality handbags. Not long ago, the only British women who bought It bags were ladies who lunch; Mulberry hit a goldmine when it made a Bayswater or an Alexa an office-to-gastropub status symbol for professional British women.
They beat: last year’s winner Burberry, Pringle of Scotland, and a new designer you may have heard of – Victoria Beckham.
Bag, £395, by Mulberry, mulberry.com Photograph: PR company handout
Special recognition award
It’s fair to say that Naomi Campbell’s celebrations of her 25th year in the fashion industry haven’t gone entirely to plan, so far. Her 40th birthday in May was celebrated with a week-long champagne-and-flowers fest on the French Riviera, Dolce & Gabbana threw its supermodel friend a party in every fashion capital during the last round of catwalk shows, and Campbell has continued her charity work, this year raising money for victims of the Haiti earthquake and the Pakistan flood. But it was her controversial court appearance during this summer’s blood diamonds scandal that has put her on the front pages this year. Not that too many people voiced that opinion to her face last night, mind.
She beat: are you joking? Nobody puts Naomi in the corner. And anyway, who’d be brave enough to collect an award Ms Campbell thought was hers? Photograph: George Napolitano/FilmMagic
Isabella Blow award for fashion creator
The elephant in the room here is Lady Gaga. This has been the year of crazy fashion, and much of it – from feather eyelashes on The X Factor to 7in heels on the high street – can be traced back to Gaga. Fashion creator is the fashion insider’s power-behind-the-throne award – last year, it went to Grace Coddington, the break-out star of The September Issue – and it recognises the stylists, makeup artists and photographers “whose creativity has been a major inspiration and influence”. So Nicola Formichetti (pictured right), Lady Gaga’s stylist, must have been pretty confident last night. Two things to know about Formichetti: he’s a man and his star has recently risen further, as creative director at Thierry Mugler.
He beat: photographers Nick Knight and Rankin. Photograph: Larry Busacca/Getty Images
Accessory designer
Even if you don’t know the name, chances are you’ve noticed the shoes – these are shoes designed to be noticed, after all. Trademarks include a lightning-flash zigzag shape along the side of the foot, fine laceups, and a “pedestal” sole – a platform that props up the shoe, but doesn’t cover the whole sole. Kirkwood began as a milliner, working with Philip Treacy from the age of 19 – he was Isabella Blow’s lodger – before deciding to apply the same outré aesthetic to footwear.
He beat: fellow shoe-designer Camilla Skovgaard (queen of the sexy cut-out ankle boot) and bag designer Emma Hill of Mulberry (she of the Alexa satchel). Photograph: Darla Khazei, PacificCoastNews.c/Darla Khazei, PacificCoastNews.c
