Female Model of the Year 2016: Ashley Graham

By any standard, Graham’s accomplishments this year would be impressive, but the fact that her presence has opened doors for size representation in all corners of the industry makes her achievements truly revolutionary. Her television and social media presence has secured her a position among the new generation of supermodels, along with Kendall Jenner and Gigi Hadid.

What marks her out, though, is that she promotes contentious issues that most of the fashion industry flinch away from. “Ashley Graham is truly reflective of the world we live in,” says Ivan Bart, president of IMG Models, Graham’s mother agency. “She has challenged not only the fashion and modeling industry, but also the nuances of what acceptance of beauty means in our culture today.”

Male Model of the Year 2016: Jordan Barrett

The darling of the industry with his mischievous smirk and beautiful bone structure, Jordan Barrett has been described by Models.com as: “A comet literally and figuratively. He is 
rebooked again and again because he is what every client wants: beauty and brains.” This year alone he has featured on the covers of Vogue Man Netherlands, Dazed, Canvas, Sunday Times Style, CR Fashion Men’s and Narcisse, to name but a few. It is almost impossible to flick through a magazine without seeing his piercing blue eyes gazing out at you from the pages of an editorial or major advertising campaign.

His reputation as a ‘bad boy’ has only served to inflate his public presence and widely felt charm. As we move into 2017, his popularity shows no signs of waning, having already secured campaigns for Roberto Cavalli clothing and eyewear.

Womenswear Designer of the Year 2016: Demna and Guram Gvasalia for Vetements

Hailed as the “brand the world can’t stop talking about” by Dazed magazine, the crown for Womenswear Designer for 2016 has to go to the Gvasalia brothers at Vetements. A potent combination of intriguing design and refreshing uniqueness in high fashion has led to the brand’s explosive growth over this year. In a short amount of time, the Gvasalias and their collaborators have established an instantly recognisable look, whereby the name ‘Vetements’ can be used as an adjective – “that hoodie is so Vetements.”

The changing shape of beauty

The anti-fashion aesthetic makes the designs ultra-cool, with celebrated clients such as Rihanna, Chiara Ferragni, Kanye West and G-Dragon. Demna graced the cover of Business of Fashion’s “New World Order” issue in January 2016, where he outlined his plans to upheave and rebel against fashion’s outdated and creatively stifling cycle system, in favour of a more direct system of distribution.

Menswear Designer of the Year 2016: Wales Bonner

Last year, we ran an article titled ‘Vogue did politics, and it didn't work’, arguing that the magazine had tried and failed to dip its toes productively into political debate. Yet this does not mean that fashion can never be political. Wales Bonner is Varsity’s Menswear Designer of the Year because she successfully locates her work in a thoughtful political context, adding a challenging and powerful intellectual edge to her clothing.

It is this that really makes her stand out – while the runway has recently been graced with a glut of young, technically innovative and commercially successful designers (see latest wunderkind Vejas Kruszewski), Wales Bonner brings something extra to the table. In this age of Trump, Wales Bonner is interweaving fashion with issues that matter. Fashion over fascism? Perhaps – here at Varsity we are excited to see what she does next