BFC's Fashion Awards to return on 4 December

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
May 23, 2023

One of fashion’s most glittering occasions will be back later this year with the British Fashion Council announcing on Tuesday that the Fashion Awards will be returning for the 2023 edition on 4 December.

It’s being held on a Monday at the Royal Albert Hall in London as usual.

The event is a guaranteed headline grabber and that matters because it’s the main fundraiser for the BFC Foundation, which supports the future growth and success of the British fashion industry through its focus on education, grant-giving, and business mentoring.

It also aims to highlight “the role fashion plays at the intersection of culture and is an entertainment platform for global fashion brands to join leading British designers, artists, creatives, and tastemakers who come together to celebrate excellence in the industry over the year”.

Last year’s event saw Valentino’s Pierpaolo Piccioli named Designer of the Year.

The importance of the Fashion Awards could be seen from the celebrity-filled red carpet with Naomi Campbell, Kristen McMenamy, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Florence Pugh, Elizabeth Debicki, Maya Jama, Stormzy, Georgia May Jagger, Lila Moss, FKA Twigs, Erin O’Connor, Irina Shayk and Tilda Swinton among the big names making an entrance.

The nominees and winners are voted for by an international judging panel of over 1,000 industry experts.

The long-running awards — which even continued during the pandemic although with an altered-format digital event in 2020 — has evolved through the years and the focus now isn’t just on the top designers. 

For instance, last year the founder of Patagonia was given the Outstanding Achievement Award for his “extraordinary dedication to environmentalism and his exceptional vision”.

And the multiple winners of the Leaders of Change Award also show it’s not just about being a designer who sells a lot of product, but a fashion insider who makes a positive impact in a variety of different ways.

But on the subject of product, the awards also have an impact here with regular reports of spikes in searches for items and themes seen on the red carpet.