And The Envelope Please

A look at some of the winners at the 2010 Scottish Fashion Awards by Nadia Scullion

Scottish fashion is underrated. The Scottish Fashion Awards, which this year celebrated its fifth anniversary, is on a mission to change that.

Says Vogue.com editor Dolly Jones, a judging panellist: “Some of British fashion’s brightest talents hail from Scotland, and the success of this ongoing event is a deserved celebration of that.”

Here are some of the designers who are helping to put Scotland firmly on the fashion map.

Scottish Designer of the Year - Jonathan Saunders
Jonathan Saunders began his career at Glasgow School of Art before completing an MA at the prestigious Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design in London. With the help of funding from the British Fashion Council, he began to build his business centred around his individualistic, architectural prints.

Recent years have seen Saunders gaining international recognition both for his own brand, which recently featured at New York Fashion Week, and as creative director of the Italian label Pollini.

Having mastered the production of garments which boast simple silhouettes, allowing his architectural, graphic prints to speak for themselves, Saunders’ Autumn/Winter 2010 collection has a distinctly fresh feel to it. While print still plays an important part, the garments reflect a new focus on interesting cut, styling and juxtapositions of texture and technique. www.jonathan-saunders.com

Scottish Textile Brand – Angela Cassidy
Winning over established brands such as cashmere producers Begg Scotland and knitwear manufacturers Lyle and Scott was Angela Cassidy, who is originally from East Kilbride. Cassidy worked for Missoni, Les Chiffoniers and Richard Nicoll before starting her own business based in London.

Angela’s creations show a clean, minimal aesthetic, setting them apart from the complex, detailed, heavy pieces currently favoured by many other knitwear designers.

Of her decision to set up outside Scotland Cassidy says: “I moved to London to further my studies. This led to various employment opportunities and experiences, which equipped me to set up my own label. I think my life would have taken a different path if I had stayed in Scotland, but that’s not to say it would have been more or less successful.” http://angelacassidydesign.com

Scottish Young Designer - Holly Fulton
Holly Fulton took this award for the second year running. With their bright blocks of colour, perspex neck pieces and bold print, Fulton’s designs are not for shrinking violets. It is perhaps this entirely fresh approach, achieved through an uncompromising vision and precise fusion of influences and craft, which explains her recent success.

A graduate of Edinburgh College of Art and London’s Royal College of Art, she cites a range of inspiration sources as diverse as Art Deco, Cubism and Joan Collins. In the past year, she has designed a line for online fashion retailer ASOS and is currently creating a range for luxury accessory retailer, Smythson. The influence of her unique aesthetic can already be seen on the high street. www.hollyfulton.com

Graduate of the Year - Jett Sweeney
Another Edinburgh College of Art graduate, Jett Sweeney won out over three other nominees chosen on the merit of their graduate collections. The next stage saw them completing a brief, set by the award’s sponsors Marks & Spencer, to design and construct a fashion-forward cocktail dress suitable to be worn to the Scottish Fashion Awards. The dress had to be designed on a strict budget for M&S’s Limited Collection range.

Constructed in a combination of pure and embossed black silk, Sweeney's sleek winning design further develops ideas explored in her graduate collection, such as the juxtaposition of interesting textures and the manipulation of fabric. She says: “I was keen to create a dress with a classic silhouette, bearing in mind that it will need to suit, and appeal to, a variety of shapes and sizes.”

With her design set to go into production for sale in Marks & Spencer stores across the country as part of their Christmas range, Jett has a bright future ahead of her and now plans to move to London.

Accessory Designer - William Chambers
One individual who has bucked the trend and firmly refused to move his business south is William Chambers, who was working in Glasgow's boutique haberdashery and trimming shop V V Rouleaux when he discovered a passion for millinery. This led him to set up his own business in 2007. Since then, Chambers has created head pieces for Roisin Murphy of the electronic pop duo Moloko and Ana Matronic of the American band Scissor Sisters.

Competing at the Scottish Fashion Awards against other strong nominees such as Keira Thorley and hosiery experts Bebaroque, it was perhaps the diversity of Chamber's work, encompassing everything from oversized bows and feathered headpieces to trilbies, which won over the judges. www.williamchambers.co.uk

International Designer of the Year (using a Scottish fabric or textile) - Markus Lupfer
Up against American brand of the moment, Rodarte, and Danish-born Peter Jensen, German-born Markus Lupfer picked up the prize for his use of tartan in his collections. Lupfer expertly integrates the tartans into his unique vision of luxury clothing, juxtaposing them with more contemporary fabrics such as jerseys and knit.

Now London-based, Lupfer has also completed a stint as creative director at the Spanish fashion house Armand Basi as well as working on consultancy projects with Mulberry and Cacharel and designing capsule ranges for Topshop. www.markuslupfer.com