Gucci’s creative director Alessandro Michele will receive the prestigious International Fashion Designer of the Year award at the 2015 British Fashion Awards, in a ceremony that will take place next week.
The designer has been at Gucci since 2002 after being hired by Tom Ford, taking over as creative director from Frida Giannini in January. Michele is a relative unknown in the fashion industry, so his appointment at one of the most hallowed brands in fashion was met with some surprise. But each of his four collections have been considered resounding critical successes, and he has been credited with reinvigorating the Italian brand, which has an annual revenue of around €3.5 billion (Dh13.8 billion) a year.
In the past year, he has paved the way for gender neutrality, dressing his male models’ crepe-de-chine blouses with pussycat bows for his autumn-winter 2015 collection, as well as steering Gucci away from its historically preppy look into something more eccentric and bohemian. His last womenswear collection, spring-summer 2016, combined concepts of psycho-geography with a modern vintage aesthetic. Dubbed “Gucci geek chic”, it was considered one of the label’s most universally revered collections.
“Alessandro Michele is a phenomenon at Gucci,” says Natalie Massenet, chairman of the British Fashion Council. “His exciting, eclectic aesthetic has made an overnight impact on global fashion trends. It is not just that he has made the brand covetable and the product so desirable. He has also reinvigorated the retail experience bringing back playfulness and magic to the flagship store. This is a man who has his customer in his heart and celebrates them.”
Victoria Beckham, Christopher Kane and JW Anderson are among the British nominees at the awards, which take place next Monday at the London Coliseum. Karl Lagerfeld will also receive the award for outstanding achievement, and Nick Knight, the Isabella Blow Award for Fashion Creator.
