BFC announces Fashion Forward winners

By

Lauren Walker

Published
Jan 20, 2014

Womenswear designers J.JS Lee, Nasir Mazhar and Sophia Webster have been awarded the Fashion Forward prize by the British Council. The prize will see each designer with a monetary prize, as well as support from the British Fashion Council (BFC) for the next two seasons.

“Jackie, Nasir and Sophia have come through the ranks and couldn’t be more deserving of this level of recognition. 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,” said Caroline Rush, chief executive of the BFC.

To qualify for the award, which was launched in 2009 and is supported by the Mayor of London, designers must have progressed through NEWGEN, the BFC’s support program for emergent designers, or be at a similar stage of their business.

For the first time J. JS Lee will open London Fashion Week with a highly anticipated show at 9am in the BFC Courtyard Show Space on Friday 14th February. Nasir Mazhar will show the same day at 4pm at the BFC Courtyard Show Space and Sophia Webster will present her collection from 10.30-12.30pm on Sunday 16th February in Covent Garden.

Previous Fashion Forward winners include Christopher Kane, Erdem and Mary Katrantzou amongst others.