Award ceremonies usually get the worst out of me, because I always end up supporting somebody who never gets the final award.
That said, it wasn’t the results of yesterday’s British Fashion Awards that actually infuriated me, but the words of Joan Burstein (of Browns fame) that I didn’t like that much.
Interviewed about the event in a short video published on the awards home page, Mrs B, ecstatically claimed “We have produced some fantastic designers in a very English way. It’s not Paris, it’s not Italy, it’s not New York: it’s real British wonderful talent.”
Now change the words “English” and “British” with “Italian” and erase the “it’s not Italy" bit and you will roughly get one of Mussolini’s 1934 speeches in support of the Ente nazionale della moda (National fashion body).
Yet, apart from that, the Swarovski Emerging Talent Award for ready-to-wear went to Peter Pilotto, a fashion design duo that comprises half-Austrian and half-Italian Peter Pilotto and half-Belgian and half-Peruvian Christopher De Vos; Glasgow-born Holly Fulton was the recipient of the Swarovski Emerging Talent Award for the accessories category and the BFC British Collection of the Year went to Christopher Kane, originally from Motherwell, so two "technically" Scottish designers (though the Glasgow Herald seem to have an ongoing campaign to make sure its readers believe Kane is an entirely Glaswegian product, at least to give a little bit of credibility to the Glasgow: Scotland with Style campaign…).
Now that invalidates the "English way" bit of the speech, though, being totally in favour of internationalism I hate being picky and looking at people's nationalities and passports.
I actually do think we can rarely talk about entirely British achievements when it comes to fashion for one main reason, a lot of collections designed in the UK are actually produced outside of the country.
I’m sure that her wonderful experience at Browns made sure Mrs B turned more than one label on the garments and accessories they sell, revealing her the piece in question was actually produced outside Britain, more often than not in Italy in fact.
I'm not saying Mrs B should have praised French or Italian quality while celebrating British designers, but it's somehow imprecise to celebrate British fashion as an entirely British product, especially when you think that even the "Red Label" line, by Anglo-maniac Vivienne Westwood is produced in Italy.
Despite I'm a supporter of genuine "made in Italy" products, I also feel that British designers are injecting a new vital and dynamic life into the Italian market.
It's probably impossible to deny that if some Italian companies hadn't bet on young designers such as Gareth Pugh (Olmar & Mirta), Giles (Castor) or Osman Yousefzada (Vaprio Stile) many jobs in Italy would have been lost. So while Italy can’t live without British designers, many British designers can’t live without Italian companies producing or distributing them.
There is one main thing many people involved in the fashion industry still haven't understood: it's not our personal nationality that makes us great, but the collective efforts that can be made by different people from different countries and with different roles in rebuilding, changing and improving the global fashion industry. These people will definitely deserve a prize, no matter their nationality, home country and mother tongue.
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