If you thought choosing an outfit for your work Christmas party was tricky, spare a thought for the British fashion industry, whose annual do at the Royal Albert Hall on Monday night was so chic, its red carpet was navy blue.
As if in response, the guests — a gamut ranging from Kylie Minogue to Sadiq Khan — seemed to intuit that this year’s event, the first under the British Fashion Council’s new chair, Laura Weir, required a stripping-back of the viral-chasing glam and OTT approach that has characterised this sort of event in the recent past. Most pivoted to something powerfully simple instead. Celia Imrie, in her role as newly crowned national treasure after Celebrity Traitors, kicked off the ceremony in a bespoke crimson Gieves & Hawkes trouser suit with a cape inspired by one Elizabeth II had worn.
Among most an unofficial dress code of black or white (with a dash of cream) emerged. Minogue wore a white handkerchief-hemmed number from JW Anderson, the Northern Irish talent who scooped the designer of the year award for work at his label and his latest billing as the top dog at Dior. Sienna Miller chose white too: a sheer bra-topped dress by Sarah Burton at Givenchy, who won the womenswear gong and whose frothy lace transparencies were the perfect celebrity foil to announce Miller’s pregnancy.
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Not to be outdone, the singer Ellie Goulding arrived with her bump on show between a black crop top and tailored shorts by the American designer Willy Chavarria. It may seem de trop to parade one’s fecundity thus but it has become the modern way: the only other options are to go very tight (naff and uncomfortable) or very tent (not even Princess Di looked good in one). So baring all in your second trimester is really the only choice, despite December weather.
Ellie Goulding in Willy Chavarria
MATT CROSSICK/WWD/GETTY IMAGES
Consensus also formed around a palette of smooth and sumptuous dairy shades: the singer Lily Allen arrived in buttery-looking 1940s-style silk and lace by Valentino, not dissimilar in hue to Alexa Chung’s retro Chloé trench coat-dress. Model of the year, the American Anok Yai, was in a creamy satin corset gown by the vanguard winner Dilara Findikoglu, whose Victoriana gothic shtick and skill for underpinnings are often compared to Alexander McQueen’s — as are her often darkly romantic catwalks shows. The designer turned up in one of her own looks — a sheer ivory bodice covered in cherries — and thanked herself for not having given up. Respect.
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Also in an elite shade of latte was Sharon Stone, dressed in a textured trouser suit by the Italian luxury titan Brunello Cucinelli — who received the outstanding achievement award — with a shaggy cream fur coat over the top. There are perhaps fewer instances for mere civilians to break out such an outfit, but the smattering of white shirts and trousers on the blue carpet might provide inspiration for your looks this festive season. Marisa Abela (of Industry and Amy fame) looked sleek and modern in a button-down and cream fuzzy tailoring, also by Cucinelli, while the model and actress Adwoa Aboah was perfectly judged in voluminous white trousers, a cummerbund-like sash and tank top from New York label The Row.
Anok Yai in Dilara Findikoglu
JOE MAHER/GETTY IMAGES FOR BFC
There were a reassuring number of glamour pusses too, albeit similarly pared back (these are celebs we’re talking about, remember, it’s all relative) to something approximating an understatement. There were few bells and whistles to Jodie Comer’s draped black leather number or to Cate Blanchett’s deconstructed tuxedo gown, both by Burton for Givenchy, whose return to the red carpet design roster after leaving her role at McQueen in 2023 has given haute event dressing a much needed elegant yet practical shot in the arm. The appearance of Delphine Arnault, the 50-year-old chief executive of Dior and daughter of LVMH’s Bernard, in a simple black trouser suit with what fashion people call “nothing hair” (neither bouncy nor tonged) and a full range of facial expressions was the last word in Parisian chic.
Jodie Comer in Givenchy by Sarah Burton
KATE GREEN/GETTY IMAGES FOR BFC
The Irish designer Simone Rocha scored highly by dressing British Vogue’s editor, Chioma Nnadi, and Weir in disco silver sequins and her signature cool-girl crinolines. The singer Raye performed Cry Me a River in a similarly sparkling off-the-shoulder gown by Ferrari Style, which once on stage matched the twinkle of the glitterballs suspended from the ceiling. As an observer, it was striking, not to mention cheering, this year how few of the women there seemed impeded by their clothes or their shoes, and how few (Amanda Holden’s cutaway buttocks and thong dress aside) felt the need to expose ever more imaginative body parts as clickbait.
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Speaking of imagination, it would be rude not to address Gwendoline Christie’s magnificent bouffant hair dome, which managed to marry the ridiculous with the sublime. Created by the hair stylist Lachlan Mackie, it was intended as a nod to similar dos on the catwalk at Comme des Garçons, whose designer Rei Kawakubo — with her business partners — received a recognition award for the London-based avant-garde concept store Dover Street Market, which has outposts around the world but remains a significant tourist draw in the capital.
Gwendoline Christie in Dover Street Market
DAVE BENETT/GETTY IMAGES
Finally, in other shopping news, the high street chain H&M used the photographer’s pit to announce a collaboration with Stella McCartney, one of its original designer hook-ups in 2005. The model Emily Ratajkowski and the self-proclaimed “nepo baby” Amelia Gray (daughter of the actors Lisa Rinna and Harry Hamlin) broke the embargo in two very short dresses from the collection, which launches in stores in the spring, when the weather may be more suitable for wearing them.
@_harrywalker1
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