The Olsen twins have been nominated for the Designer of the Year Award Alongside Matthieu Blazy, Sarah Burton, Haider Ackermann and Anthony Vaccarello

Every year, the British Fashion Council honours the most innovative creative forces in the fashion industry. For three consecutive years, the top prize at the Fashion Awards went to Jonathan Anderson, first for his creative direction of JW Anderson, then Loewe and Dior. Yesterday, the BFC announced its new nominations, and this time the Dior creative director's name does not appear on the list. In fact, it was rather refreshing to see that so many women (three, but we'll take it) are this year competing for the Designer of the Year award — a title that has gone to a man for the past 14 years.

 

 

Among the designers nominated for Designer of the Year, not all are native to the United Kingdom (and Ireland), even though the award is run by the British Fashion Council. This year's nominees also include Ashley and Mary-Kate Olsen, founders of American brand The Row, Anthony Vaccarello, creative director of Saint Laurent, Haider Ackermann of Tom Ford, Matthieu Blazy of Chanel, Michael Rider of Celine and Sarah Burton of Givenchy. For the Olsen twins, Ackermann and Vaccarello alike, this marks their first nomination of their careers.

 

 

The other awards are the British Womenswear Designer of the Year, the British Menswear Designer of the Year, and a Vanguard category prize for an emerging designer based in the United Kingdom. Nominated for the first award are Clare Waight Keller for her work with Uniqlo, Erdem Moralıoğlu, founder of Erdem, Louise Trotter, creative director of Bottega Veneta, Sarah Burton and Simone Rocha, founder of her eponymous brand. For British Menswear Designer of the Year, the nominees are Foday Dumbuya of Labrum, Nick Wakeman of Studio Nicholson, Simon Holloway of Dunhill, Kiko Kostadinov and Simone Rocha.