For this year's Fashion Awards, presented by TikTok, the who's who of the industry descended on the red carpet winding up towards the Royal Albert Hall. It was business as usual after last year's virtual event, except for the fact that overshadowing the occasion was yesterday's news that Virgil Abloh, one of the industry's most trailblazing talents, had passed away after a private battle with cancer.
Abloh was recognised for his industrious and inclusive approach to work as part of Leaders for Change, a group of 15 designers, brands, creatives, and individuals who created positive change within the fashion industry under three categories: Environment, People and Creativity. And before the ceremony commenced, Idris Elba read a poem in his honour, Maya Angelou's When Great Trees Fall.
Tommy Hilfiger won the Outstanding Achievement Award, recognised for creating a brand that has endured for almost four decades, while Kim Jones, who arrived on the arm of presenter Demi Moore, scooped one of the night's biggest awards: Designer of the Year. Without further ado, here’s the definitive list of who won what and why.
SEE: The Fashion Awards Winners 2020
Designer of the Year: Kim Jones OBE
The powerhouse designer helms not one but two luxury maisons - Dior Men and Fendi - and sent fans into a frenzy with Fendace, this year's collaboration with Versace.
BFC Foundation Award: Nensi Dojaka
Zendaya, Emma Corrin, Adwoa Aboah, Emily Ratajkowski, all have been seduced by the sheer confections that are a signature of Nensi Dojaka's. Expect big things (she also scooped this year's prestigious LVMH Prize).
Independent British Brand: Simone Rocha
No one has a style signature quite like Simone Rocha, who celebrated a decade of her label last year. Whether or not you have children, owning one of her pieces is rather like owning an heirloom: it'll only get more precious with age.
Special Recognition Award for Culture Commentary: Dylan Jones
As GQ's former (longtime) editor-in-chief, Dylan Jones has shaped and championed this country's menswear industry like no other.
Leaders of Change - Creativity: Alessandro Michele for Gucci
Having stepped away from the traditional show calendar, Alessandro Michele finished this year with a bang, staging a spectacular show on Hollywood Boulevard (famous faces on the catwalk included Jodie Turner-Smith, Macaulay Culkin, Jeremy Pope and Jared Leto). 2021 also saw the release of The Hacker Project, a 'mutual contamination' with Balenciaga.
Leaders of Change - Creativity: Demna Gvasalia
As well as participating in The Hacker Project, Gvasalia gave weary fashion editors a reason to smile at Paris Fashion Week: a specially-commissioned episode of The Simpsons, Balenciaga-style.
Leaders of Change - Creativity: Jonathan Anderson for JW Anderson and Loewe
Anderson is just as much an artist as he is a designer, with a body of work that bridges fashion, films, interiors and art at his eponymous label, JW Anderson, and Loewe.
Leaders of Change - Creativity: Kim Jones OBE for Dior Men and Fendi
Jones had a stellar night, scooping Designer of the Year and appearing as one of the 15 Leaders of Change - the brands, creatives and individuals who created positive change within the fashion industry in one of three categories: Creativity, Environment and People.
Leaders of Change - Creativity: Virgil Abloh for Louis Vuitton Men and Off-White
Last night, the fashion world mourned one of its greatest visionaries and trailblazers - Virgil Abloh, recognised as a creative force that was as industrious as he was inclusive. As well as being chosen as one of the 15 Leaders of Change, Idris Elba paid tribute to the designer and his legacy at the beginning of the ceremony.
Leaders of Change - Environment: Bethany Williams
Bethany Williams' brand is built around sustainability and social responsibility, with people and planet put at the centre of everything she does. For a recent collection, All Our Stories, she commissioned an artist, Melissa Kitty Jarram, to run storytelling workshops at The Magpie Project, a charitable organisation that helps parents and children under-five who are living in temporary accommodation. Jarram then worked the stories shared into a series of artworks that were woven into the collection.
Leaders of Change - Environment: Gabriela Hearst for Chloé & Gabriela Hearst
Gabriela Hearst is a real change-maker when it comes to moving the sustainability conversation forwards. Under her creative directionship, Chloé has laid out ambitious objectives for the future - 90% lower-impact materials and 30% fair-trade sourcing by 2025 - and aims to be the first luxury label to be B-Corp Certified. At the heart of everything she does, of course, is the ultimate sustainable tradition: craft.
Leaders of Change - Environment: Phoebe English
English was one of the designers to exhibit at COP26, demonstrating the less extractive methods, using non-virgin resources, that she and her team have developed. 'The fashion sector has a huge opportunity to be contributing to healthier, less extractive systems. It is imperative that as an industry we are unified in our actions to make these approaches general practice across the international sector. The time is now,' she said.
Leaders of Change - Environment: Priya Ahluwalia
Priya Ahluwalia has had a very good year, fresh off the back of collaborations with Ganni, for whom she created a patchwork collection out of deadstock materials, and Mulberry. As well as participating in COP26, Ahluwalia has also been shortlisted for 2022's International Woolmark Prize. Stay tuned.
Leaders of Change - Environment: Stella McCartney OBE
Stella McCartney was a pioneer of sustainable fashion long before it became fashionable, and is being recognised as the industry trailblazer for processes like fabric innovation and circularity with local communities that have now percolated into the fashion world at large. At COP26, she showcased a new plant-based material called 'Mylo', what she calls an 'un-leather', that's grown from the vegetative part of a fungus (mycelium).
Leaders of Change - People: Edward Enninful OBE
As editor-in-chief of British Vogue - not to mention the European editorial director of Condé Nast - Edward Enninful has helped to set a new agenda for fashion media, one that prizes diversity, celebrates inclusivity and continually challenges perceptions.
Leaders of Change - People: Harris Reed
Harris Reed has had some major moments this year - a sell-out collaboration with Missoma; dressing Iman, supermodel icon, for this year's Met Gala; his first salon-style show to close London Fashion Week - and continues to explore and champion his 'fluid fantasy' approach to fashion.
Leaders of Change - People: Kenya Hunt
Kenya Hunt, Grazia's deputy editor and fashion director, was chosen because of her commitment to championing people of colour in the fashion world. In 2015, she set up ROOM, a support network and mentoring scheme that creates space within the British fashion industry for Black, Brown and marginalised voices (alumni include Saul Nash, Bianca Saunders, Deborah LaTouche and Abigail Ajobi). Her critically-acclaimed collection of essays, Girl, is currently being adapted for the small screen.
Leaders of Change - People: Samuel Ross
Last year, A-Cold-Wall*'s Samuel Ross created the Black Lives Matter Financial Aid Scheme, pledging £10,000 to the organisations and people on the frontline of the movement. He also announced a grant scheme to help increase the visibility of Black artists, which has just awarded a second round of funding to creators spanning all manner of creative industries, from sculpture to furniture design.
Leaders of Change - People: Telfar Clemens
Telfar Clemens is one of the most innovative - and inclusive - fashion designers of our time. As well as announcing the launch of Telfar TV, a community-driven channel that will allow fans to shop its limited-edition drops, he is fresh off the back of one of this year's biggest collaborations, Ugg x Telfar, all while preserving his brand's core pillars of diversity and a democratic approach to fashion.
Outstanding Achievement Award: Tommy Hilfiger
Tommy Hilfiger received this year's Outstanding Achievement Award, acknowledgment of almost four decades at the helm of one of the most recognisable brands in the world.
Isabella Blow Award for Fashion Creator: Ib Kamara
Ib Kamara, editor-in-chief of Dazed, is responsible for some of this year's most ingenious fashion imagery (Harry Styles wearing a corseted dress from Rick Owens; Rihanna wearing a string bikini, trench coat and thigh-high boots).
Trailblazer Award: Alessandro Michele for Gucci
Like Kim Jones, Alessandro Michele was also the recipient of two awards for his game-changing tenure at Gucci.