Activism Was the Real Winner of This Year’s Fashion Awards
The annual Fashion Awards (TFA) went fully digital for 2020 with a newly formatted program to reflect the turbulent year. Classic awards such as "brand of the year" and "best accessories designer" were replaced with a short film highlighting 20 individuals across areas of Community, Creativity, People, and the Environment.
The film also brings in a fresh selection of fashion's thought leaders and new creatives such as photographer Myles Loftin to share their thoughts on the changes seen across the industry this year.
Under the "People" category, the BFA honored the Emergency Designer Network, a group created by Bethany Williams, Cozette McCreary, Holly Fulton, and Phoebe English to create 50,000 surgical gowns and 10,000 sets of scrubs for health workers in the UK, demonstrating the designers' incredible adaptability to an unprecedented global health crisis.
Samuel Ross, founder of A-COLD-WALL* was also selected as an honouree in the People category for his rapid response to Black Lives Matter movement, which saw him develop the Black Lives Matter Financial Aid Scheme and subsequently pledge £10,000 to the organizations and people on the frontline supporting the movement.
Stella McCartney was recognized for being a trailblazer in the sustainability sector, in particular for being pioneering many of the processes that are now percolating the world of fashion, from fabric innovation to encouraging circularity with local communities.
Elsewhere, Edward Enninful was commended for his contributions to diversity through his editorship at British Vogue, meanwhile, Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons' co-creative directed SS21 collection for Prada was noted as the most anticipated debut of the year, and Riccardo Tisci and Jonathan Anderson were lauded for their creative alternatives to standard fashion presentations.
Watch the The Fashion Awards 2020 in full below.