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BFAs Celebrate Fashion, But Not Business

The British Fashion Awards have become the de facto celebration of our global fashion industry, but they should acknowledge businesspeople as well as creatives.
British Fashion Awards 2015 | Source: Courtesy
By
  • Imran Amed

LONDON, United Kingdom — This week, the eyes of the global fashion world were on London, as the British capital welcomed 450 fashion power players from around the world to the British Fashion Awards, now in its 27th year. This is the only fashion awards ceremony that feels like a truly international event, with attendees, presenters and award winners hailing from around the world, not to mention more than 2,000 members of the public looking on from the stalls of the London Coliseum, where the star-studded evening was held.

Seeing awards go to two BoF Spotlight designers (Thomas Tait and Jordan Askill), four BoF special print issue cover stars (Tom Ford, Stella McCartney, Alessandro Michele and Karl Lagerfeld, who won the outstanding achievement award), three BoF video stars (Erdem Moralıoğlu and JW Anderson, who won both womenswear and menswear designer of the year) and Nick Knight, who participated in a livestream Fashion Pioneers interview on BoF back in December 2010, as well as my former student Grace Wales Bonner, who won the emerging menswear designer award, it also felt like a wonderful celebration of the global BoF community.

But I do have one longstanding gripe with the BFAs, something that I first wrote about after attending the awards in 2008 and have discussed from time to time with the British Fashion Council. As designer after designer accepted their Swarovski crystal trophies — there were 16 winners in total, including 12 designers, 1 model, 1 imagemaker, 1 actress and 1 musician — it was clear, yet again, that the awards neglect to acknowledge the businesspeople and entrepreneurs who also drive the success of our industry.

I call on the British Fashion Council to round out the ceremony with some acknowledgment of the business professionals who work in fashion — and then this excellent event will feel even more complete!

Imran Amed, Founder and Editor-in-Chief

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