If you want to be, let's face it, rather British about our Fashion Awards,
which took place last night, you could say that they're a sedate affair -
certainly if compared with their glitzy American counterpart, the CFDA
awards - and dominated by names that resonate in only about 2 per cent of
British households.
Alternatively, you could say that the overblown awards ceremony, with its
all-too-familiar roster of faces, has had its day. The average age of the
designers here is mid-thirties. The average age of Italy's design stars is
60. How refreshing to see genuine talent flourishing, like rare wild
poppies, among the economically efficient prairies that are today's global
fashion corporations.
I say flourishing, but the economic outlook for small to middling purveyors of
luxury, fantasy and, yes, narcissism, has been sunnier. Still, this lot
didn't get this far without being focused, tough and downright pig-headed.
Two world-class shoe designers, one milliner in a class of his own, one
wildly successful brand, a unique ready-to-wear talent and the first black
model to walk the catwalk for Prada in ten years - if you don't already know
them (what's taken you so long?), these are the names to celebrate.
Fashion creator
Tim Walker
In a world where hard, glossy, borderline pornographic aesthetics still rule,
37-year-old Tim Walker's gentle narratives are unique - and internationally
sought after, appearing as frequently in Italian Vogue as they do in the
British issue and, earlier this year, in an exhibition at the Design Museum.
His is a very English vision; part Cecil Beaton and Norman Parkinson, part
Thomas Hardy. An apprenticeship in New York, working for Richard Avedon,
merely reinforced his love for the British countryside where he grew up -
notably Surrey, Dorset and Sussex. But this is not simply an exercise in
bucolic nostalgia. Walker's colour-saturated extravaganzas generally contain
at least one unpredictable or subversive element, making for a deceptively
wild kind of road trip.
Designer of the year
Luella Bartley
Designers have won several fashion tributes and gone bust in the time it has
taken Bartley to climb her way to the top and snag the biggest award. But
Bartley was never in a rush. Smart woman. It's her enthusiasm for life,
coupled with her idiosyncratic take on Britishness - borderline parodies of
Sloane, equestrian and rock'n'roll style, always executed with affection -
that have helped the former fashion journalist to establish a unique point
of view and gain a genuine following among teens and their mothers. From
that first collection, called “Daddy I want a Pony”, in 1998, Bartley's
hotly anticipated shows have matured into cleverer-than-they-look
demonstrations of how to balance street credibility and design cool with
wearable clothes. Weirdly, her tiny business helped to ignite the whole It
Bag trend in the late Nineties, with the Gisele, a multistrapped whopper she
helped to design for Mulberry. Moving her show back from New York Fashion
Week to London Fashion Week two years ago sealed her position as one of the
freshest, most endearing voices in fashion.
Model of the year
Jourdan Dunn
Rangy, refined and regal, the 18-year-old from Greenford, West London, is a
million aesthetic light years from her homophonic namesake, Jordan, aka
Katie Price. But the two may share the same determination. Having been
“scouted” by Storm (Kate Moss's agency) while she was shopping in a certain
cut-price chain store two years ago, her ascent makes meteorites look slack.
British Vogue, French Vogue, ID, Givenchy, Gaultier, Marc Jacobs, POP,
McQueen, Ralph Lauren...are just some of the blue-chip names to have
embraced her. Who says you can't find quality in Primark?
Red carpet
Matthew Williamson
Some purists object to this award because it's not primarily about design.
That's slightly missing the point. Creating a label is about building a
brand, and it's mighty hard to do that today without celebrity endorsement -
and it's mighty hard to get celebrity endorsement without a big chequebook.
Williamson doesn't have the chequebook, but he has charm - and,
increasingly, a new sophistication that makes him the go-to man for all
kinds, from the R&B diva Kelis, to Sienna Miller and the ever-smiling
queen of America's most watched dance programme, Cat Deeley. Latterly, he's
been most instrumental in transforming Cheryl Cole into the country's most
fashionable national treasure.
Fashion brand
Jimmy Choo
With an annual turnover of £85.6 million and 50 shops worldwide, Jimmy Choo is
one of the most successful British luxury brands ever. Who'd have thought?
Although its founder, the eponymous Jimmy Choo, had a small following, he
couldn't move his business forward. Enter Tamara Mellon, an It girl and a
former Vogue stylist whose main claim to fame at that point was appearing
semi-naked in a Pretty Polly shoot. Defying the critics, Mellon proved a
formidable businesswoman, as well as the ultimate ambassador. The Sunday
Times recently ranked her the UK's 751st richest person with an estimated
fortune of £99 million. We rank Jimmy Choo as the label that eight out of
ten celebrities prefer to wear on the red carpet.
Accessories designer
Rupert Sanderson
By his own admission, it may have been insanity that prompted Sanderson to
resign from his career in advertising to learn how to make shoes at
Cordwainers College in East London. A man who clearly likes grand gestures,
he later rode a motorbike to Italy to tour leather factories. What we like
about Sanderson is his old-fashioned attention to detail, balance and
quality. He knows that woman cannot live by shoe sculpture alone: though
high, Sanderson's shoes are made for walking. Perhaps that's why he's the
first port of call for stylish, thinking women such as Samantha Cameron, as
well as dedicated fashionistas. This is as close as the killer heel gets to
intelligent design (see Fashionista Questionnaire, page 11).
Outstanding achievement
Stephen Jones
What does it say about Britain that the two most extraordinary milliners of
the past two decades (the Irish Philip Treacy and the British Jones) live
here? Is it because our preoccupations with class, tradition and iconoclasm
make such ripe pickings? Certainly Jones, a public schoolboy turned
legendary Blitz clubber, has found a fertile seam here, from the exquisite
headgear he designed for Boy George and Diana, Princess of Wales, in the
Eighties, to the Busby-inspired skyscrapers that he conjured up for John
Galliano's spring/summer 2009 show. He can even do wearable. Small wonder
that he's on the speed-dial of everyone from Rei Kawabuko to Gwen Stefani,
Vivienne Westwood to Beyoncé. Wildly imaginative, whimsical and erudite, he
is a one-off. And he's terribly nice, which helps. Roll on the V&A's
2009 retrospective.
Emerging talent
Louise Goldin (ready to wear)
Nicholas Kirkwood (accessories)
He's the new British shoe wunderkind; she's the knitwear designer whose shows
have been garnering more raves than knitwear has done for years. Refining
her craft in South America, Goldin makes knitting architectural and
distinctly un-homespun. Catch her in Topshop. Just when you thought
everything had been done with a shoe, along comes Kirkwood with just enough
warped imagination to breathe new life into platforms, shoe-boots and his
signature cutaway platform. Aerodynamic yet wearable and elegant, if shoes
remain an it-item it will be in no small way down to him.
Menswear designer of the year
Christopher Bailey
Reinvigorating a fusty old British brand and turning it into a global
powerhouse isn't as easy as Bailey made it look. Since becoming Burberry's
creative director in 2001, the 37-year-old Yorkshireman, who previously
worked at Gucci and Donna Karan, has given the 152-year-old house a unique
aesthetic that embodies all that's romantic about British style, yet plays
to an international market. By keeping focused on all that's best about the
brand's heritage - form, function, tailoring, the odd royal connection - he
saw off all those snide comments about terraces and chavs.
