The Fashion Awards 2026 Nominees Are In

This year’s shortlist captures a fashion industry in the middle of one of its biggest creative reshuffles

The British Fashion Council has revealed the nominees for The Fashion Awards 2026, and Designer of the Year reads almost like a roll call of fashion’s new establishment. Matthieu Blazy at Chanel. Haider Ackermann at Tom Ford. Sarah Burton at Givenchy. Michael Rider at Celine. Four designers, four enormously influential houses, and four relatively recent appointments that have spent the past year answering variations of the same question: what should a historic fashion house look like under somebody new?

They are joined by Anthony Vaccarello for Saint Laurent and Ashley and Mary-Kate Olsen for The Row, making the category an interesting collision between designers reshaping inherited institutions and creative leaders whose longer-term authorship is already firmly established. It is difficult to imagine a shortlist that better reflects fashion in 2026. The industry has spent several seasons obsessing over creative-director appointments. The Fashion Awards are now beginning to judge what those appointments actually produced.

Designer of the Year

Recognising a British or international designer who has made an outstanding impact on the global fashion industry in 2026:

• Anthony Vaccarello for Saint Laurent

• Ashley and Mary-Kate Olsen for The Row

• Haider Ackermann for Tom Ford

• Matthieu Blazy for Chanel

• Michael Rider for Celine

• Sarah Burton for Givenchy

Sarah Burton is particularly prominent this year. Alongside her Designer of the Year nomination, she appears again in British Womenswear Designer of the Year for Givenchy. Her first full year at the house has established a distinctly different proposition from the Givenchy she inherited, one built around femininity, construction and a sensuality that feels increasingly identifiable as her own.

The womenswear shortlist also demonstrates just how loosely the word “British” now operates within British fashion. Clare Waight Keller is recognised for her work at Japanese giant Uniqlo, Louise Trotter for Italian house Bottega Veneta, Burton for French house Givenchy, while Erdem Moralıoğlu and Simone Rocha represent their own London-founded labels. British fashion influence, as represented here, is considerably larger than British fashion brands.

British Womenswear Designer of the Year

Recognising a leading British womenswear designer who has demonstrated significant global impact in 2026:

• Clare Waight Keller for Uniqlo

• Erdem Moralıoğlu for Erdem

• Louise Trotter for Bottega Veneta

• Sarah Burton for Givenchy

• Simone Rocha for Simone Rocha

  
  

Menswear offers a different picture. Here, the emphasis shifts away from fashion’s enormous global houses and towards designers and labels with distinctive identities of their own. Foday Dumbuya’s Labrum has made cultural storytelling fundamental to its proposition. Kiko Kostadinov continues to operate within a highly specific design universe, while Nick Wakeman’s Studio Nicholson and Simon Holloway’s Dunhill approach menswear from very different interpretations of the wardrobe.

Then there is Simone Rocha. Her presence in both womenswear and menswear is particularly interesting because it reflects how far her universe has expanded beyond the category in which she established her name. She is one of only two designers, alongside Burton, to receive two nominations this year.

British Menswear Designer of the Year

Recognising a leading British menswear designer who has demonstrated significant global impact in 2026:

• Foday Dumbuya for Labrum

• Kiko Kostadinov for Kiko Kostadinov

• Nick Wakeman for Studio Nicholson

• Simon Holloway for Dunhill

• Simone Rocha for Simone Rocha

  
  

Perhaps the category worth watching most closely, however, is Vanguard. Introduced to recognise designers at the forefront of Britain's emerging fashion generation, its second shortlist brings together Conner Ives, Ellie Misner, Steve O Smith and Tolu Coker. Unlike Designer of the Year, there are no enormous luxury houses providing the infrastructure behind the names. This is fashion at a considerably earlier and more precarious stage of building a business.

That makes the category particularly important. Fashion is very good at celebrating emerging designers aesthetically and considerably less successful at creating the conditions that allow independent labels to survive long enough to become established ones. Recognition from an institution such as the BFC cannot solve that problem, but visibility, industry attention and institutional support matter enormously when young designers are attempting to turn critical enthusiasm into sustainable businesses.

Vanguard Award

Recognising a designer at the forefront of a new wave in British fashion who is helping shape the industry's future:

• Conner Ives for Conner Ives

• Ellie Misner for Ellie Misner

• Steve O Smith for Steve O Smith

• Tolu Coker for Tolu Coker

  
  

The four shortlists were selected by an 18-member jury of critics, editors and buyers, including representatives from British Vogue, i-D, ELLE UK, British GQ, Selfridges, Harrods, Liberty and Vogue Runway. A separate industry Voting Committee will now cast confidential votes to determine the winners.

Other honours will form part of the ceremony too. The BFC has already announced that Jimmy Choo creative director Sandra Choi will receive a Special Recognition Award for her contribution to the global fashion industry.

The winners will be revealed when The Fashion Awards return to London's Royal Albert Hall on November 30. The event remains the principal fundraiser for the BFC Foundation, which supports designers through education, grants and business mentoring.

But before anyone takes home an award, the shortlist already provides a useful snapshot of fashion in 2026. At the highest level, much of the industry's attention remains concentrated on what happens when exceptional designers inherit exceptional houses. Further down the establishment, independent designers continue building highly individual worlds without anything close to the same resources.

The Fashion Awards places both conversations under one roof. For an industry currently asking where its next ideas will come from, that may be the most interesting thing about the list.