It’s easy to look at this year’s Fashion Awards in London—arriving at the end of a politically turbulent year in Britain, in the middle of a war dividing Europe in two, just weeks after Cop27 highlighted the urgency of the climate crisis once again—as a frivolity. Frankly, that’s probably because it is. However you try to square the circle, it’s a night of mutual back-patting and self-congratulation within an industry that, while slowly evolving and attempting to broaden its scope—and inviting ticket-buying members of the public to its biggest night out—still feels like an insider’s game.
Does that mean the Fashion Awards serve a purpose? Strangely, yes. First, there’s the sheer escapist spectacle of it all. Walking up the steps of the Royal Albert Hall on a freezing December evening the looks were pretty spectacular, though how the fashion plates in barely-there Nensi Dojaka and Knwls dresses survived the trek without catching pneumonia is a medical mystery.
Bridgerton star Simone Ashley was an early arrival in a sweeping floor-length 16Arlington hooded dress twinkling with powder blue Swarovski crystals, closely followed by Erin O’Connor in a Scottish Widows-chic Erdem gown crafted from lace netting and topped with a mourner’s veil. FKA Twigs wore a distressed, ombré Moncler x Rick Owens gown (and graphic, extraterrestrial makeup, of course), while Kristen McMenamy served high fashion flamingo in a Pink PP Valentino number bedecked with marabou feathers and matching pink plumes to decorate her kohl-rimmed eyes. If it was just the thrilling, transformative power of getting dressed up to the nines you were looking for, the red carpet alone delivered.
But the chatter among the crowd filing in—eavesdropping, I heard plenty of talk of diversity, sustainability, and accessibility—appeared to suggest everyone was here for a little more substance; even as they floated to the dinner tables filling the basin of the historic concert hall’s stalls, or made their way to the lavishly decorated red-and-gold boxes that rise above it like tiers of a wedding cake.
Up in the circle’s nosebleed seats sat a fun-loving sea of students, receiving a shout-out from the night’s host, Jodie Turner-Smith, in her opening speech. Asking whether they’d all snuck in a bottle of wine or two to enjoy the night with, her question was met with ferocious whooping. They grew even louder when Turner-Smith kicked off the festivities with an ode to queer creativity. “Can you imagine fashion without the LGBTQIA+ community?” she asked. The enthusiastic cheers were enough to answer in return: absolutely not.
Then came the awards. A well-deserved win went to Grace Wales Bonner for best independent British brand, although not before one of the night’s more charming, off-the-cuff moments. The prize’s co-presenters, Burna Boy and Heartstopper breakout Yasmin Finney, couldn’t quite make out the words on the distant teleprompter. Cue Burna Boy inviting Stormzy up from a nearby table to interpret, leading to the trio cracking up and Finney herself losing track of her speech cue cards. Worry not: Wales Bonner still got her win—but it was just the kind of endearingly silly moment a fashion awards ceremony in London should hinge on.
From there, Steven Stokey-Daley capped an extraordinary year by winning the BFC Foundation award, having already taken home the LVMH Prize in June. (For context, the stratospheric rise of Stokey-Daley’s label, S.S. Daley, began just two years ago when a louche white blouse and upcycled floral trousers were worn by Harry Styles in a music video. Since then, the menswear designer’s ever-so-slightly-skewiff take on Brideshead Revisited preppy chic has been all but unstoppable.) Said the visibly overwhelmed Stokey-Daley? “Oh my gosh, I’m on the stage of the Royal Albert Hall—I feel like Adele.”
Following that, Tilda Swinton glided in wearing a Charles Jeffrey silk gown decorated with what looked like William Blake illustrations, her signature blonde crop coiffed into a dramatic ducktail. Presenting an award to Jefferson Hack, the founder of indie London mags Dazed and AnOther, Swinton waxed delightfully lyrical, reminiscing on a walk she and Hack took together near her Highlands home in Nairn many years ago, where they discovered, and ultimately decided to leave alone, a baby seal. “Jefferson and I often speak of this magical encounter, and it’s become emblematic of our friendship,” she said, to a wave of laughter, eventually dedicating Hack’s win to “the guardianship of the baby seal.” (Never change, Tilda.)
And of course, no event celebrating the most important moments of 2022 in Britain could come without a tribute to the Queen. Within the walls of the Royal Albert Hall—the London venue whose ribbon was first cut by Queen Victoria in 1871, and swiftly renamed in honor of her late husband—Naomi Campbell delivered a speech that saw her grow visibly emotional recognizing the Queen’s support of the British fashion industry, before a single-file of the Queen’s Guards began circling the perimeter of the auditorium and rattling out a drumbeat.
A serpentine line of models soon followed, led by Lila Moss wearing the faux fur and tweed crown Vivienne Westwood made in collaboration with Stephen Jones and famously wore on an i-D magazine cover in 1987. (Even if Johnny Rotten has come around to the Queen in the end, we’re not sure how the rest of the Sex Pistols would have felt about their anti-royalist invective “God Save the Queen” soundtracking it—but it’s the thought that counts.)
Really, the night felt like it was defined by the moments that looked firmly to the future. There were 15 awards handed out to an array of creatives driving change within the industry—from upcycling maestros like Marine Serre and Priya Ahluwalia, to those tirelessly working to broaden the scope of who fashion can serve, such as Aurora James and Sinéad Burke. And arguably the most important bellwether of where fashion is going next was the outstanding achievement award being given to Yvon Chouinard of Patagonia.
Where previous recipients of that prize have included the likes of Karl Lagerfeld and Miuccia Prada, Chouinard was honored for passing on the vast majority of shares in his $3 billion outdoor clothing company to a nonprofit organization earlier this year, ensuring the brand’s ongoing profits—currently tracking around $100 million a year—will be donated in their entirety to fighting climate change. While the prize was accepted by the conservationist and Patagonia chair Charles R. Conn in place of the notoriously press-shy Chouinard, I couldn’t help but feel that the message should have been made louder, and clearer: Chouinard’s decision is the kind of radical change needed to ensure the fashion industry’s future.
The ceremony ended with a glitzy one-two punch of Pierpaolo Piccioli receiving the designer of the year award from Florence Pugh, before a closing performance by latter-day disco queen Jessie Ware, belting her Studio 54-ready banger “Free Yourself” with a crew of backing dancers vogueing to the high heavens.
But its most affecting moment was the penultimate one. Having led the 15 recipients of the “Leaders of Change” award on stage, British Vogue editor-in-chief Edward Enninful handed the microphone over to one voice, and one voice only: Julie Pelipas, the creative director and former fashion director of Vogue Ukraine, whose clarion call for justice cut through the night’s more excessive moments with calm, considered grace.
“We all love fashion here,” she said. “We do it on a daily basis, and it’s our greatest escape. I want you to imagine doing everything you do in complete darkness, no heating, no water supply—a constant risk of being killed or injured, just while working in your office. That’s how the Ukrainian fashion industry is operating right now, but we continue to shoot clothes, run businesses, and even launch brands.”
The Mariupol-born creative then went on to invite everyone in the Royal Albert Hall to attend the Ukrainian Fashion Awards next year, hopefully, in her current hometown of Kyiv. “Slava Ukraini!” she added to the most resounding applause of the night.
As the crowds surged back outside, spirited away in black cabs to the after-party, the message could easily have been lost. For some, it maybe was. But for just as many, Pelipas’s speech kept ringing in the ears. “I don’t say this to upset you,” she said during the ceremony. “In fact, the opposite—I hope this inspires you to reevaluate the power you own, the influence you have, and the ability we all have to change this world to be a better place.” Even amid the eye-popping circus of London fashion’s biggest night out, there were glimmers of possibility that its community could do just that.
