Caribbean Heritage at the Forefront of the 2025 British Fashion Awards
The British Fashion Council has unveiled the nominees for the 2025 Fashion Awards, set for December 1 at the Royal Albert Hall in London. This year’s shortlist not only showcases some of the industry’s most influential names but also highlights the continued global impact of designers of Caribbean descent.
In the headline Designer of the Year category, Martine Rose is nominated alongside Jonathan Anderson (Dior and JW Anderson), Glenn Martens (Diesel and Maison Margiela), Miuccia Prada (Miu Miu), Rick Owens, and Willy Chavarria. Rose, who has steadily transformed from London underground innovator to an international design force, brings her Jamaican heritage into a field long dominated by European luxury houses.
The British Menswear Designer of the Year category further cements Caribbean influence. Grace Wales Bonner, celebrated for her intellectual approach to tailoring and exploration of Afro-Atlantic histories, is shortlisted alongside Nicholas Daley, whose work consistently draws on his Jamaican-Scottish background, merging craft, music and community into a distinctly modern menswear vision. They compete with Craig Green, Foday Dumbuya (Labrum London), Kiko Kostadinov, and Stefan Cooke and Jake Burt for the prize.
Elsewhere, Simone Rocha, Sarah Burton, Erdem Moralıoğlu, and Chopova Lowena lead the British Womenswear Designer of the Year nominations, while the Vanguard Award celebrates emerging voices including Torishéju Dumi, Aaron Esh, Dilara Fındıkoğlu, Feben, Steve O Smith, and Tolu Coker.
For Rose, Wales Bonner and Daley, their recognition this year represents more than individual achievement. Together, they signal how Caribbean heritage — from the diasporic tailoring traditions of Wales Bonner to Rose’s subcultural reinventions and Daley’s celebration of sound system culture — has become central to the story of contemporary British fashion. Their presence at the forefront of the awards reflects not only the strength of Caribbean creativity but also its role in shaping the future of global design.