Stella McCartney was named Designer of the Year last night at the British Fashion Awards, ahead of Luella Bartley and Anya Hindmarch.

Ten other leading fashion figures were also honoured at the ceremony, which was hosted by Zoe Ball and held at the Lawrence Hall in Westminster.

36-year-old McCartney has had a bumpy ride since launching her eponymous label in 2001. Despite a sizeable investment from the Gucci Group, which owns 50 per cent of the brand, McCartney only turned over an operating profit this year; lucky considering, Robert Polet, Chief Executive of the Gucci Group, had demanded she got out of the red by 2007.

After graduating from Central Saint Martins in 1995, McCartney became the Creative Director of the then struggling house of Chloe. Despite some harsh criticism about her talents from Karl Lagerfeld, who was vacating the position, Chloe went from generating only about £1 million in sales under Lagerfeld, to 15 times that once McCartney was in charge. A pioneer of effortless dressing, McCartney’s designs mix cool femininity with elements of mannish tailoring, to create a kind of lived-in sexiness. Her designs for next summer rely heavily on blooming florals and wispy cottons. Madonna, Gwyneth Paltrow and Kate Moss all wear her designs.

Famous for her passionate stance against fur, McCartney is a patron of the Vegetarian Society and a member of PETA (People for Ethical Treatment of Animals). She will not work with any animal skins, despite Gucci’s position as one of the biggest retailers of designer leather bags. Her performance collection, adidas by Stella McCartney, which launched in 2004, has set a new standard in sports style, closing September’s London Fashion Week with a presentation of its summer collection. In 2005, McCartney also created a one off capsule collection for Swedish retailer H&M that had customers queuing through the night.

Despite missing out on the Designer of the Year award, Anya Hindmarch was happy to pick up Designer Brand, presented to her by Claudia Schiffer. Having started her company in 1989 with just one shop on London’s Walton Street, Hindmarch now owns 55 stores worldwide. This year she launched her charitable I’m Not a Plastic Bag tote that created such international excited 30 people in Taiwan were hospitalised after being caught in the scrum to buy one.

The elfin-faced Agyness Deyn, who shot to face after she cut her hair into a peroxide crop, beat off stiff competition from Lily Cole and Irina Lazareanu to become Model of the Year. Hailed as the new Kate Moss (who didn’t even manage a nomination), Deyn is currently the face of Burberry, Armani and Mulberry.

The award for Fashion Creator was renamed this year in honour of the late Isabella Blow and was presented last night by Philip Treacy and Detmar Blow to Michael Howells, who has repeated brought to life John Galliano’s theatrical ideas through fantastical set designs.

Erdem Moralioglu is this year’s recipient of the British Fashion Council’s Fashion Enterprise Award, sponsored by Swarovski. The half English, half Turkish designers received £50,000 in prize money.

Vivienne Westwood received The Outstanding Achievement in Fashion Design award. Having herself won Designer of The Year in both 1990 and 1991, this latest accolade recognises her design achievements over the last 30 years.

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