Anok Yai at Prada AW18; photograph by Jason Lloyd Evans
And so the wave continues… As announced in October, this year’s Fashion Awards will be honouring 100 of the most innovative talents in the fashion industry as part of New Wave: Creatives. Standout stylist, models, photographers, activists and all other sort of geniuses are being celebrated by the British Fashion Council for their contributions to the collective movement forward of our world. After the first Shanghai group being announced last month, today’s event in New York’s High Line had the US 20 revealed by the Council’s Chief Executive Caroline Rush, along with designer Charles Jeffrey and editor-in-chief of Out magazine Phillip Picardi.
The American wing of the next generation includes models Adesuwa Aighewi, Kaia Gerber and Halima Aden, actress and activist Hari Nef, virtual influencer Lil’ Miquela, drag superstar Aquaria as well as photographers Ethan James Green, Joshua Woods and Tyler Mitchell amongst many others. As one of the nominees, model Anok Yai (the first black model to open a Prada show since Naomi Campbell) says, these are the people “who are working to push boundaries, fight for diversity and bring a new creative perspective to the industry.” Another standout and a Ten favourite are Tony Liou and Lindsey Schuyler. You might not know their passport names, but you definitely do know Diet Prada, the major Instagram account that’s making our industry quake in its boots and change into a positive direction. “It’s an honour to be nominated as part of the New Wave: Creatives alongside an incredibly diverse group of talent. It’s refreshing to see the British Fashion Council recognise the contributions from such a wide spectrum of disciplines which make the fashion industry so thrilling to be a part of,” the duo shared.
Two major fashion capitals down, and a few more to go, this is already turning out to be quite a fabulous bunch of people we wouldn’t mind hanging out with.
The US 20 New Wave: Creatives honourees of The Fashion Awards 2018 in partnership with Swarovski are:
Adesuwa Aighewi (model)
Anok Yai (model)
Aquaria (drag performer)
Brianna Capozzi (photographer)
Carlos Nazario (stylist)
Cleo Wade (poet, artist, author)
Ethan James Green (photographer)
Halima Aden (model)
Hari Nef (model, actress, activist)
Jawara Wauchope (hair stylist)
Joshua Woods (photographer)
Kaia Gerber (model)
Lil Miquela (musician/ producer)
Luka Sabbat (creative entrepreneur)
Nick Vogelson (founder & Editor in Chief of Document Journal)
Nyle DiMarco (model)
Solange Franklin (stylist)
Tony Liu and Lindsey Schuyler (fashion critics, Diet Prada)
Tyler Mitchell (photographer)
Zoey Grossman (photographer)
The Fashion Awards 2018 will take place on December 10th at 8pm GMT.