Who’s going to be the Designer of the Year in 2019 Fashion Awards?
The Fashion Awards are celebrating its 30th anniversary in 2019 and the nominees for the 10 categories will be announced within the next month (last year the date was October 23rd).
This year’s awards ceremony will be held in the Royal Albert Hall on December 2nd. Let’s take a look at who we think are going to be nominated in 2019.
Designer of the Year is the crème de la crème of the Fashion Awards. In 2018, the title was given to Valentino’s Pierpaolo Piccioli (if this guy doesn’t sound like a designer, I don’t know who does, eh?).
He cool, he real cool, and so are the $1000+ sweaters Valentino sells.
Who’s going to be the King of Catwalk in 2019?
Alessandro Michele
So who's going to be the king (or queen) of the catwalk in 2019? Gucci is the hottest fashion brand in the world at the moment. That’s at least if you believe the quarterly Lyst Index, which ranks the hottest products and brands in fashion. Alessandro Michele, Gucci’s creative director, should definitely be among the Designer of the Year nominees in 2019.
Virgil Abloh
Virgil Abloh has a lot to be proud of right now: he’s been the artistic director of Louis Vuitton’s men’s wear collection since 2018, his name was on Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential people in the world in 2018, and he’s the CEO of his own label Off-White, current number 2 on the Lyst index (on top after Q1).
Remember the zebra striped look that Serena Williams wore in French Open? That was designed by Abloh.
Off-White’s Jitney 1.4 “Cash Inside” bag is the world’s hottest fashion product this quarter (again, according to the Lyst Index). On top of this, Off-White won the Urban Luxe Award at the Fashion awards in 2017 and 2018 - now is the time to step up! All this makes Virgil Abloh our favorite to be the winner in December.
Demna Gvasalia
The French luxury group Kering is doing great at the moment. They own the aforementioned juggernaut Gucci, and their Balenciaga is the fastest growing brand in couture and leathers goods. Balenciaga’s Creative Director Demna Gvasalia is not a new name at the Fashion Awards - he’s already won the Accessories Designer of the Year and the International Ready-to-Wear Designer awards in 2018 and 2016 respectively. He’s going to be hard to keep out from the considerations of this years Designer of the Year winner, and should deffo be on the shortlist of nominees.
Rihanna & Beoncé
Rihanna and Beoncé could both be on the shortlist. Think about it - the duo has de facto reasons to be on the list (Rihanna became LVMH’s first black female designer, and Adidas’s social media impressions grew 61% in 24 hours after they revealed they’d be working with Queen B), and their nominations would raise the profile of the Fashion Awards exponentially. Ok, I agree that giving the Award to Beoncé would be reminiscent of the Nobel Peace Prize and Obama-story, but hey, you never know.
Our shortlist for 2019 Designer of the Year nominees
Alessandro Michele - Cucci
Virgil Abloh - Off-White
Demna Gvasalia - Balenciaga
Rihanna - LVMH
Beoncé - Adidas
Other categories at the 2019 Fashion Awards
Designer of the year
Accessories Designer of the Year
Business Leader
Urban Luxe Award
Model of the Year
Outstanding Achievement Award
Swarovski Award for Positive Change
Isabella Blow Award for Fashion Creator
Brand of the Year
Special Recognition Award for Innovation
Trailblazer
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