The British Fashion Awards has named Valentino’s creative director, Pierpaolo Piccioli, and Bella Hadid as designer and model of the year, respectively.
Piccioli, who is Italian and has helmed the luxury fashion house since 2008, was presented the award for Designer of the Year by Don’t Worry Darling star Florence Pugh, who frequently wears the label’s creations.
The award recognises designers “whose innovative collections have made a notable impact on the industry, defining the shape of global fashion”.
Previously nominated alongside Piccioli was Demna Gvasalia, creative director of Balenciaga, which is currently embroiled in a scandal over two controversial ad campaigns.
The campaigns received huge backlash after one featured children holding bondage-themed teddy bears and another featured documents from a Supreme Court child pornography case.
Demna apologised last week for the “wrong artistic choice of concept” in adverts featuring children. His name, however, was removed from the list of nominees for the British Fashion Awards.
Meanwhile, Hadid, who attended the event at Royal Albert Hall on Monday night (5 December) via video, was recognised for her “global impact” as a top model who has “dominated the industry, with an influence that transcends the catwalk”.
The 26-year-old was nominated alongside Adut Akech, Lila Moss, Paloma Elesser, and Quannah Chasinghorse.
Hadid, who was also named the “most stylish person on the planet” last month by British GQ, made headlines when she had a white Coperni dress spray-painted onto her body during the label’s Paris Fashion Week show.
She has recently come under pressure to renounce Balenciaga amid the controversy, given that she modelled for the brand’s collaboration with Adidas as well as its Garde-Robe Spring 2023 campaign.
The supermodel appears to have recently deleted an Instagram post from the photoshoot for the latter amid the backlash against the brand.
Nominees and winners for the awards are decided by an international judging panel, which includes more than 1,000 experts from the fashion industry.
This year saw Valentino credited for generating the “Barbiecore” trend, after Piccioli created a new Pantone colour called “Pink PP” for his autumn/winter 2022 collection.
The bright pink hue inspired monotone outfits everywhere and was sported by the likes of Anne Hathaway, Zendaya, Kim and Khloe Kardashian, and other celebrities.
Other winners at the event included SS Daley, who won the BFS Foundation Award; Wales Bonner for the Independent British Brand award; Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard for Outstanding Achievement Award; and Burberry for the Fashion Award for Metaverse World and Gaming Experience.
