Burberry, Prada and Kane honored at British Fashion Awards

By

Florent Gilles

Published
Dec 3, 2013

The 2013 edition of the British Fashion Awards delivered its verdict Monday night, drawing an audience of more international stars than ever before. The award for best women's wear designer went to Christopher Kane, hero of the year in the U.K. following his entry into the folds of the Kering Group. The award was presented by Donatella Versace, who had given him a vote of confidence a few years back when she named him head of Versus.

Nicholas Kirkwood, acquired this year by the LVMH group, received the award for best accessories designer for the third time in his career (!). Meanwhile, J.W. Anderson was awarded the New Establishment Award, a recognition that essentially means a designer is "no longer considered emerging." Anderson is another of the number one luxury company's rising stars since his appointment as creative director of Loewe.

The new award for Best International Designer of the Year was won by Miuccia Prada, presented by Gwyneth Paltrow. The British star of the evening, Christopher Bailey, won two awards for his work at Burberry — the Designer Brand of the Year award and Men's Wear Designer of the Year for Burberry Prorsum, beating out Kim Jones who had been nominated for Louis Vuitton. Not to worry: Jones was honored with the same award only last year.

The founders of i-D magazine, Tricia and Terry Jones, received a special honor for their contribution to fashion, more than twenty years after they created the publication and a few months after its acquisition by the American group Vice Media.

Regarding emerging talent, Simone Rocha received the award for best female designer, the duo Agi & Sam won the award for the best new men's wear label and Sophia Webster took home the Emerging Accessory Designer award.

A special recognition award was presented by Samantha Cameron (Britain's first lady) and Jefferson Hack (Another Magazine and Dazed & Confused) to journalist Suzy Menkes for her 25 years of chronicling the fashion world for the International Herald Tribune, now renamed the International New York Times. Kate Moss also received a special honor from Marc Jacobs for her 25-year-long career in fashion.

Celebrities Emmanuelle Seigner, Clemence Poesy, Sienna Miller, Rita Ora, Alexa Chung and Gwyneth Paltrow walked the red carpet, sponsored by the Westfield Group, the giant Australian commercial real estate company, an important detail in terms of media visibility for the brands. This year's new Red Carpet award went to Erdem after Roksanda Ilincic took home the prize last year. The invitation card for the evening stipulated a more stringent dress code for the rest of the guests: "Black tie & British."