While Hollywood glamour is all well and good, there is only one award ceremony that takes the biscuit and it's a little bit closer to home. Also, even better, it's not about films or music or any of that...This one's about fashion *girly squeal*.
British fashion, in particular, which- i'm not biased- is obviously the best and most exciting fashion industry on the planet. Yes, the nominees for the exclusive 2011 British Fashion Awards were announced today and they are honouring some of my favourite Brits.
Emerging RTW talent in the UK is pretty hard to keep track of (we have Central St Martins- what do you expect?), but the BFC have nominated the fabulous J.W. Anderson, Peter Pilotto and Mary Katrantzou for said award. My pick has to be Katrantzou for making me covet dresses that I would undoubtedly look absolutely preposterous in, but still fancy.
Victoria Beckham- who has worked to gain respect among fashion snobs and critics- will be bouncing off the walls to be in the company of Stella, Burberry and Tom Ford for the Designer Brand award. While Lady Becks has kind of taken over the world with her meticulous dresses, Christopher Bailey's work at Burberry as profiled in British Vogue's feature 'The Check Republic" has just gone from strength to strength and the trench-clad global-domination should be honoured in my view.
Victoria was mentioned once again in the new 'Red Carpet' award (alongside Stella McCartney and Antonio Berardi) for fashion favoured by the rich and famous- and thus widely publicised- but i've got to hand it to Stella for making some dresses that make anyone look absolutely fierce and seriously sexy without being OTT. See Kate Winslet, Liv Tyler and Gwynnie. I rest my case.
Last but not least, there's this little acolade that nobody really bothers about for 'Designer of the Year'. Previous winners have included Pheobe Philo and Christopher Bailey... No biggy (spot the overly obvious use of sarcasm). For 2011, these greats will be joined by another fashion maven. The nominees are pretty hard to decide between! Sarah Burton crafted the most famous dress of the year, while also making the house of McQueen a total superpower in the face of adversity. Erdem Moralioglu is one of my favourite designers as far as wearability goes and his S/S collection full of lace and blooms was delectable. He's also another favourite of the Duchess (not that it matters, I gave her the benefit of the doubt but she blew it with one too many pairs of LK Bennett demi-wedges). The odd-one out as far as the royal connection goes is Christopher Kane (pride of Scotland? I think so!), but he is also an all-out genius whose collections are never predictable and always a fresh and idiosyncratic take on something simple. Who else could make clear pockets of coloured gel sensuous? I call it the Kane touch.
What do you guys think of the nominees and who are you backing? Tweet me @SWfashion_ or comment below!
Don't it make ya proud to be British?
