 |
The British Fashion Council has confirmed that the much-anticipated British Fashion Awards 2008 will take place on Tuesday November 25th. The UK fashion industry's most prestigious awards evening, which is supported by international fashion brand Swarovski for a third year, is staged at the RHS Lawrence Hall in London's Westminster.
A night of high octane glamour, once a year over 500 VIPs gather to celebrate the creativity and successes of British fashion design talent; the guestlist gathers together industry leaders, designers, celebrities, retailers, models and journalists from across the globe. This year sees the introduction of a pair of new awards, sponsored by Swarovski - the Swarovski Emerging Talent Awards for Ready-to-Wear and Accessories.
Winning a British Fashion Award is the ultimate accolade for a home-grown designer, with the Designer of the Year and BFC Award for Outstanding Achievement in Fashion Design vying for the top slot on the evening's schedule. All nominees - and ultimately the winners - are selected by a selection panel made up of the BFC Press Committee, a Menswear panel, and the Outstanding Achievement panel; as a collective, members of these panels are drawn from the most established and well-respected names in the industry. |
|
 British Fashion Awards
Nov 25, 2008, London, UK |
British Fashion Awards 2008
Stephen Jones to receive the Outstanding Achievement Award |
 |
The British Fashion Council (BFC) is delighted to announce that Stephen Jones will receive the Outstanding Achievement Award at this year’s British Fashion Awards, supported by Swarovski, on Tuesday 25th November. This special award celebrates the achievement of a designer whose work has had an exceptional impact on global fashion; it is decided by an international committee including leading commentators, creative directors, fashion institutions, stylists.
Stephen Jones graduated from Central Saint Martins School of Art in 1979. As one of the original ‘Blitz Kids’, he picked up commissions from Visage and Spandau Ballet. Within a year, he had opened his first millinery salon in Covent Garden, and he was soon designing hats for Jasper Conran and Zandra Rhodes. In the succeeding years, his witty, charming, and exquisitely crafted work has added the all-important punctuation mark to runway collections by a veritable Who’s Who of fashion’s elite, ranging from Vivienne Westwood, Jean Paul Gaultier, Thierry Mugler, Claude Montana, Lanvin, Balenciaga and Comme des Garçons to Marc Jacobs, Basso & Brooke and Giles Deacon. His most celebrated collaboration, however, has been with John Galliano, since 1993, and he has been the milliner at Christian Dior since 1996.
Hats designed by Stephen Jones have memorably graced the heads of Diana, Princess of Wales, Madonna, Mick Jagger, Dita von Teese, Nicole Kidman, Boy George, Christina Aguilera, Roisin Murphy, Usher and Marilyn Manson. Stephen also created the show-stopping headdresses for Kylie Minogue’s ‘Showgirl’ tour.
On the movie screen, Stephen’s creations have been worn by Cate Blanchett in ‘Elizabeth, The Golden Age’, and Keira Knightly in ‘Atonement’; he is currently creating hats for Audrey Tautou to wear in the forthcoming French production, ‘Coco avant Chanel.’ Stephen has also designed hats for the ballet ‘Le Defilé’ with Jean Paul Gaultier, and the new production ‘Eternal Light’ by the Rambert Dance Company, as well as the ‘Easter Parade’ windows for Saks Fifth Avenue for three successive years.
Over his remarkable three-decade career, Stephen’s iconic creations have featured in innumerable exhibitions around the world, the most recent being the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s ‘Anglomania’, the V&A’s Anna Piaggi ‘Fashionology’, and the Kylie exhibition in both London and Melbourne.
Earlier this year he launched his innovative first fragrance in collaboration with Comme des Garçons.
Stephen also has a long-standing relationship with Swarovski, whose crystals have adorned his creations for the ballet and brought a special magic to collaborations with such designers as Basso & Brooke, Giles Deacon, and most recently Comme des Garçons for their Christmas 2009 Crystal Journey.
For the past two years, our master milliner has been working with the V&A to present ‘Hats: An Anthology by Stephen Jones' – a fashion blockbuster set to launch during London Fashion Week in February 2009. Exhibits, drawn from the museum’s own rich archive and various international collections, will range in style and period from a 17th-century Puritan’s hat to a 1950s Balenciaga couture piece, together with hats by Stephen and his contemporaries.
Hilary Riva, Chief Executive of the BFC, commented, “The Outstanding Achievement Award celebrates the exceptional talent of an individual who has contributed to the British fashion industry both internationally, and here in the UK throughout their career. Stephen’s extraordinary work has encompassed the worlds of fashion, music and film. He is a true original whose work is as relevant today as it was when he designed his first collection in 1979. Despite working regularly with the biggest names on the international catwalk he finds time to nurture and collaborate with emerging talent, sharing his skill and creativity. I am thrilled that he will be the recipient of this year’s Outstanding Achievement Award.”
Notes:
2007 Outstanding Achievement in Fashion Design Award was awarded to Vivienne Westwood
BFA Awards for Outstanding Achievement in Fashion Design nominations panel:
Andrew Bolton, The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, Fabien Baron, Baron & Baron, Hilary Riva, Chief Executive of the British Fashion Council, Joan Burstein, Founder and Owner of Browns, Suzy Menkes, The International Herald Tribune, Patti Wilson, International Stylist and The BFC’s press committee.
British Fashion Awards
www.britishfashionawards.com |
|
|
|
