" Last night it was wall to wall celebs, fashionistas, media and fashion decision makers as they crammed into the Savoy for the biggest fashion event in the British fashion calendar – The British Fashion Awards. This yearly event sees British Fashion hold it's breath - as if slipping into it's tightest corset - for one of the biggest nights of these designer's careers. Far exceeding the notoriety of an easily swayed A-list celeb donning one of their gowns for one of the millions of award ceremonies, this is the industry itself deciding who deserves these annual crowns. The outcome cannot be coerced by deep pockets and the promise of a big budget endorsement – which incidentally can make a celeb do anything you want them to do.
The outfits were of course THE subject of the evening as was Victoria Beckham's speech but I'll go into that one a bit later...
Although some outfits were amazing, others were, well, not so amazing. It looked a little like some guests had let the pressure get to them and the stage fright had clouded their – normally much better – judgement. Whilst I love British Fashion, if you strictly HAD to wear a British designer's garb to a high profile do, what brand would you choose? Mine would easily be JW Anderson BTW. This prescription can be somewhat limiting though and quite clearly got the better of some.
Josephine de la Baume (Mark Ronson's missus) was sadly one of the casualties. I'm the first one to love a black and white look, but this was neither glossy and tuxedo-like nor cheeky and flirty....it was both – eeks. Her evening-long miserable expression accessorised the look about as well as her big clumpy yet strappy heels - a little schizophrenic, if I'm being kind. Alexa Chung won the British Style Award wearing an embellished mini dress by her old fav designer (and lovely man) Christopher Kane and looked fab. Kate Moss looked predictably cool in a fishnet dress and fur Cruella Deville jacket and hung out with her pal Stella McCartney, who looked a little wallpaper-y in a suit and matching clutch from her SS12 collection. If she wasn't so darn chic it simply wouldn't have worked, but what outfit wouldn't work with a Kate Moss accessory hanging off you? Gorgeous Poppy Delavigne wore a Matthew Williamson number which had me a little unconvinced as it almost completely washed out her perfect skin but she's such a lovely, captivating girl that we soon forgot about the insipid shades that sheathed her envy-making figure.
Our good ole VB looked stunning as always and let the ice-queen facade melt a little for a brief glimpse. Winning her Designer Brand award (beating Burberry, McCartney and Tom Ford to the punch) she broke down as she delivered her acceptance speech thanking her team, parents, children and hubbie (youtube it... it's quite sweet). It's nice to finally see VB letting a normality through the stony face and robotic ways we have become so used to.
The evening dripped in talent regardless of the winning brands and the whole evening was the true hub of British Fashion and it's fans; it felt like an incredible place to be - crammed with creativity, glamour, celebs and air kisses. It's always a conundrum to figure if a fashion event is real or yet another fake display - conjured up by money, bribes and staged relationships - but last night was one of those that goes some way to re-establish a bit of faith in the fickle world of fashion. As you will know by now, I have cynical tendencies (hard to believe I know) but like VB, maybe I'm softening in my old age as this beautiful evening was really rather convincing..."
