From Rihanna to Tom Ford, we list the best moments from this year’s British Fashion Awards.
You’d be hard-pressed to stand out against Rihanna’s swaddling blue mass of plumage – a concoction of cerulean feathers from Christian Lacroix’s archive complete with a sweeping, Vermeer-esque hat – as she sat at dinner alongside her beau, A$AP Rocky, but a few mighty (and mightily talented) Britons managed it on Monday evening at the annual Fashion Awards. Attended by international stars Halle Bailey, Rebel Wilson and Venus Williams, it was nevertheless Blighty (and Northern Ireland’s) night for all the noise around the aforementioned Rocky winning the award for “Cultural Innovator” (me neither), locals such as Dame Margaret Barbour, she of trusty Barbour jackets fame, won a Special Recognition Award and Northern Ireland’s finest export Jonathan Anderson picking up Designer of the Year.
There was also a rare moment of tenderness (and even rarer removal of the signature sunglasses) from Vogue editor Dame Anna Wintour, who in awarding Tom Ford for his Outstanding Achievement Award became overwhelmed with emotion at Ford’s new chapter in recent years as a single father, after the death of his husband, Richard Buckley, in 2021.
“Tom is an extraordinary designer and a great film-maker – but he has emerged as a remarkable father. As Stella [McCartney] put it to me: ‘A lot of people don’t know that being a dad is his greatest, biggest achievement',” said the British-born Dame Anna. “We salute you, Tom, for always standing out from the rest, but also, even more, for always standing close to who you care about the most. Congratulations, Tom,” she said, her voice cracking with emotion. Ford noted that, despite being a native Texan and now calling Miami home, he’s spent more time in London than any other place. “The thing that makes it so special is that this is British, I have lived here for half of my life. I’m so lucky to call it home,” said the charismatic Ford, who turned 63 this year.
It was a big night for the British contingent; Anderson has turned LVMH’s sleepy Spanish accessories brand Loewe into a pulsing, directional fashion force with a remarkable line-up of celebrity ambassadors. Daniel Craig’s recent makeover, whatever you might think of it, is due in part to the lilting Anderson; he has a nous for picking quirky names to front his experimental clothing, from Sir Anthony Hopkins to the late Maggie Smith. The category was a contentious issue; British designer John Galliano was a fellow contender for his work at Paris house Maison Margiela, a role secured after a period of rehab and seeming contrition after an explosive firing from Dior for anti-Semitic rants in a Paris bar in 2011. His nomination was seen as part of a gradual rehabilitation.
It was also refreshing that among the more avant-garde fashion names competing, some established names and veterans of the industry received recognition. The softly-spoken, charmingly polite Stephen Jones, for example, the milliner who first began his career in the punk era of the 1980s, won Accessories Designer of the Year. Jones, who was one of the original Blitz Club members, has gone on to conquer the world of high fashion, creating fantastical works of wonder for Dior, Jean Paul Gaultier, Azzedine AlaÏa and Vivienne Westwood. The 84-year-old Dame Margaret, who received the award from Alexa Chung, was also a fine example of British stoicism, talking movingly about the sudden, shocking death of her husband, John Barbour, when she was 28 years old. The young mother swept in to keep the family business going and turned it into what’s become a solid backbone of British outerwear.
Elsewhere, the excellent London-based designer Grace Wales Bonner won in the category of British menswear while Dublin-born designer Simone Rocha won the British Womenswear Designer Award, thanking her father John Rocha for his stylistic steer; don’t worry, she’s far too talented to be termed a “nepo baby”. British publisher and editor Sophia Neophitou-Apostolou was also honoured for her work as a boundary-pushing stylist and founder of the 10 magazine franchise of experimental style titles.
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Advertise with NZME.The red carpet didn’t quite have the heft of the Met Gala – that other Dame Anna platform for legacy building – in fact, it was rather overladen with the Made in Chelsea-tier of reality television stars (do tell us more about your thoughts on early Margiela and the Antwerp Six, Mark Wright). It was reassuring to see the power of Made in Britain do well. Sometimes you don’t need expressive experimentalism or second-rate celebrities, just a trusty Barbour coat.
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