We’re so very lucky and honoured to have a judging panel of such esteemed fashion industry experts. Here’s some information on the very important people making the big decisions at the Best of Manchester Fashion Awards this year!
New Designer Award judges:
Peter Saville is one of the most influential designers of our time. He has created a series of iconic images, including album covers for the bands Joy Division and New Order, and conceptual design projects that are exhibited all over the world. He is now contributing to the economic regeneration of Manchester as the city’s creative director.
Born in Manchester in 1955, Saville studied graphic design at Manchester School of Art, and in 1979, a year after graduating, co-founded the legendary independent record label, Factory Records, with the late Tony Wilson, and was appointed as the label’s creative director. Saville later designed seminal artwork at other labels for Roxy Music, Wham!, Suede and Pulp. He has also worked extensively in fashion by creating advertising and branding for Alexander McQueen, Dior, Jil Sander, Stella McCartney, Yohji Yamamoto and, most recently, Kate Moss and Kilgour. Saville’s clients in the cultural sector have included Centre Pompidou in Paris and the Barbican Centre and Whitechapel Gallery in London. He has also developed products in collaboration with Adidas and Raf Simons. Saville has won numerous design awards, and his achievements in design were celebrated in The Peter Saville Show at the Design Museum in London, 2003 followed by Urbis in 2004.
In 2005, he staged his first major show in a contemporary art museum with the exhibition, ESTATE, at the Migros Museum in Zurich. Saville’s ongoing work in conceptual design is exhibited at Paul Stolper in London and at Galerie Neu in Berlin. An international authority on design and creativity, he is a regular broadcaster on design issues and lectures all over the world. Throughout his career, Saville has engaged with design at a strategic level, culminating in his appointment as consultant creative director to Manchester City Council in 2004. As well as advising on perception and communication, he is creative consultant to the critically acclaimed Manchester International Festival.
Claire Lomax is a co-founder of Flux Magazine and has worked with some of the world’s biggest names in fashion. She strives to commission the most cutting-edge creative talent for Flux, an irreverent and thought-provoking take on leftfield and popular culture that brings fun, wit and adventure back to art, music, fashion, film and culture. From its Manchester base, Flux distributes 70,000 copies of FLUX nationally and internationally four times a year alongside its online editorial magazine. Flux features a brave and bold mix of well-respected figures and groundbreaking fashion, bands, artists and ideas. Those appearing in Flux include Yohji Yamamoto, Alexander McQueen, The Fall, Boudicca, The xx, David Shrigley, Franz Ferdinand, Tracey Emin, Pixies, Liars, Squarepusher, Shane Meadows, Bill Drummond, Nick Cave, Jake and Dinos Chapman and Vivienne Westwood.
Caroline Rush was appointed CEO of the British Fashion Council in April 2009 following two years advising on PR and Communications Strategy for the BFC as an external adviser and running the press office for London Fashion Week. She has 16 years experience in PR and Marketing across fashion, music, beauty and lifestyle both in house and from an agency perspective.
Oscar Pinto Hervia is the Creative Director of Hervia Bazaar and Hervia Ltd. Born Valparaiso, Chile in 1965, Oscar began his retail career by working for a fashion retailer on Bridge Street Manchester for 7 years. He then went on to set up his first independent boutique in the Royal Exchange in 1993. ‘Hervia’ quickly became the place to visit for innovative and exciting British brands like Vivienne Westwood, Alexander McQueen, Helmut Lang and Hussein Chalayan. It was a destination store for North West celebrities and Take That were seen in there on numerous occasions buying the latest designs.
Before the Manchester bomb destroyed the Royal Exchange store in 1996, Hervia went into discussions with Vivienne Westwood to open a standalone store selling only her collections on Saint Mary’s Street just off Deansgate. This store opened in 1995. Hervia are now the leading UK franchisee for Vivienne Westwood with stores in Manchester, York, Liverpool, The Trafford Centre, Newcastle and Nottingham.
In February of this year Oscar opened a luxury multi brand boutique in Spring Gardens stocking some of the highest end and highly respected designers of the fashion world. Hervia Bazaar is a beautiful art deco inspired store selling designs for men and women from Antonio Berardi, Viktor & Rolf, John Galliano, Pierre Hardy, House of Holland, Ann Demeulemeester, A Child of the Jago, Rick Owens and many more. Although only open since the end of February Hervia Bazaar has already won praise from the national press being heralded as one of the most desirable shops to visit in the North West with Grazia magazine saying it “fills a design gap in the North.” Oscar has recently joined forces with Elle Magazine and The British Fashion Council to support an initiative they are running called Launch Pad. The scheme puts successful retailers together with new British design talent in order to help them develop their business. Oscar was on a prestigious panel of judges who included model Helena Christiensen, Elle editor Lorraine Candy and BFC’s CEO Caroline Rush and from S/S 2011 has chosen to stock and support new designers Holly Fulton and Eudon Choi.
Small Indepedent Retailer/Designer Award judges:
Peter Saville (see above for biog.)
Dolly Jones studied History of Art at Manchester University before arriving at Vogue for three week’s work experience. Next came London’s University of the Arts Periodical Journalism course, during which she was commissioned to interview “someone at the top of their game” – Alexandra Shulman obliged – and she was later invited back to take up a six month internship as editorial assistant of the magazine. The “Writer” job at VOGUE.COM came up in January 2000. A decade later – after breaking news every day, working with the Condé Nast Digital team to develop the site to its fullest potential and being named editor in 2005 – she is now responsible for an awarding-winning website that is the most fashion-forward and regularly updated fashion destination online.
In 2008 her role was expanded to Executive Editor of Condé Nast Digital, while remaining editor of VOGUE.COM. She sits on various fashion panels including the British Fashion Council and the Innovation Initiative Forum and she is also on the committee of the British Society of Magazine Editors.
Jessica Lowe is Press and Marketing Manager for Harvey Nichols in Manchester. She works promoting the garments of some of the world’s finest and most successful designers as well as more niche brands and new names in the fashion world. In the competition she will be looking for retailers that have a creative approach in building a brand, customer service and communicating with their customers.
Rob Warner is Design Director – Global Product at Umbro. Warner joined Umbro in August 2009 and leads product design for all categories across performance, lifestyle and fashion.
Originally from Birmingham and a graduate of the BA Fashion Design with Technology course at Manchester Metropolitan University, Rob’s former employers include Puma and O’Neill. He has directed product concepts for the 2006 World Cup, 2008 Olympic Games and Volvo Ocean Race as well as collaborations with the likes of Luella Bartley, Neil Barrett and Ferrari.
Rob’s passion for challenging design preconceptions saw Peter Saville introduced to the Umbro fold, leading to the “New Fabric of England” home uniform for the English national football team.
Helen Tither, Manchester Style Guide editor and Manchester Evening News columnist, has interviewed everyone from Posh Spice to the Prime Minister in her 10 years in journalism. As Women’s and Fashion editor at the M.E.N. she set up the award-winning Style supplement and interviewed some of the city’s favourite fashion exports including Matthew Williamson and the first interview with Henry Holland. As well as reporting from the catwalks of Milan and London fashion weeks. But her passion has always been for unearthing the up-and-coming design talent and independent boutiques that make our city such an amazing shopping destination. Since going freelance last year, Helen now edits Manchester Arndale’s Inside magazine, the new Manchester Style Guide, alongside a weekly opinion column for the M.E.N. and various fashion features for the internet. In her spare time, she admits to spending far too much time “researching” the fashion finds in Manchester’s coolest new stores.
