J. JS Lee, SS14, Backstage (Sam Wilson, BFC)
The British Fashion Council announces three womenswear designers are to be awarded the Fashion Forward prize, supported by the Mayor of London.
Throughout Autumn/Winter 2014 and Spring/Summer 15, London Fashion Week designers Sophia Webster, J. JS Lee and Nasir Mazhar are to be awarded with the British Fashion Council’s Fashion Forward initiative.
The prize, which was first awarded in 2009, provides winners with funding to help them show their collections at Fashion Week, as well as provide business support from the British Fashion Council. In order to be put forward for the Fashion Forward prize, they must have to have been through the NEWGEN initiative or be at a similar stage in their careers. All three of this year’s recipients have done just that, becoming some of the most celebrated London Fashion Week designers of recent seasons.
“Jackie, Nasir and Sophia have come through the ranks and couldn’t be more deserving of this level of recognition,” said Caroline Rush, Chief Executive, British Fashion Council, “Each of them has a very distinctive design aesthetic, their visions very different from one another however together they very much share the limelight that is shining on London right now.”
London Fashion Week kicks off this February 14th, and for the first time J. JS Lee has been given the opportunity to open the event at the BFC Courtyard Show Space at Somerset House. Nasir Mazher will follow the same day at 4pm and on February 16th Sophie Webster will bring her whimsical world to a presentation space in Covent Garden.
Already all hot tickets on the London Fashion Week show schedule, the Fashion Forward prize will only elevate these British based designers on their journey to well established brands.
London Fashion Week AW14 kicks off on Friday 14 February 2014.