Leaders of Scotland’s online fashion industry have celebrated the industry’s successes at the The Herald Fashion.co.uk Awards.
The event at the Grand Central Hotel in Glasgow last night brought together 200 retailers, bloggers, stylists and other entrepreneurs.
Among the exhibitors was TV presenter Rachel McTavish with her jewellery line, surface design and illustrator Lyndsay Mackie, beauty brand Fake Bake and beauty clinic Therapie Clinic.
The event, hosted by TV presenter Jean Johansson, heard from Cally Russell, chief executive of fashion app Mallzee about the importance of online, the changing face of retail and what future holds for budding fashionistas.
The fashion awards were supported by Bridge 2 Business, Markup, Therapie Clinic and s1jobs.
The Best Online Newcomer Award was supported by software development firm Markup, which offers e-commerce software and services to fashion retailers.
It was won by nu blvck, which was judged to have made a creative journey from design to delivery for its customers.
Barry Gear, director, Markup, said: “We must offer our congratulations to the winners but also our commiserations to those who challenged them for the award.
“It has been another year of outstanding quality and everyone who has been nominated must be very proud of what they have achieved over the last 12 months.”
Blogger of The Year for Scotland, was also a hotly contended category, supported by Therapie Clinic, went to Ruth MacGilp’s Urbanity Blog.
The blog covers ethical fashion, cruelty-free beauty, sustainable businesses while supporting Scottish artists/designers.
Therapie Clinic director Katie McGlade said: “The talent across the fashion industry in Scotland is truly inspiring. Not just within the ‘Blogger of the year category’ but across the whole creative sector.
“We would like to say a huge congratulations to all the deserving finalists, in particular Urbanity Blog and look forward to working with you further in the future.”
Up and coming talent was celebrated with the Scottish Online Fashion Graduate of the Year Award, supported by enables up and coming talent to be recognised. This category was again supported by Bridge 2 Business, The overall winner was Jenny McCraw of Yellow Bubble, for her response to a gap in the market for modern, luxury knitwear
Geoff Leask, chief executive, Young Enterprise Scotland, said: “Congratulations to Yellow Bubble on winning the Fashion Graduate of the Year Award. It was great to meet Jenny McCraw and we could all see on the night how much this meant. They showed a terrific combination of endeavour and talent, which should always be recognised and rewarded in our young professionals. The awards have been a huge inspiration to all of us at Young Enterprise Scotland.”
The People’s Choice Award voted for by Herald readers and Twitter followers was won by Shapes of Things with 64 per cent of votes.
The Best Scottish Online Retailer of the Year, supported by s1jobs, was won by Walker Slater. It meticulously designed its online store to replicate the type of real store experience customers would find.
Hilary Grant of Orkney knitwear manufacturer was named Best Scottish Independent Online Retailer for growing the company’s online business from a mainly seasonal business to an all year round effort.
For more information on the awards and highlights from the event please log onto www.heraldfashion.co.uk.
For information on the 2017 awards please contact Lyndsay Wilson on 0141 302 7407.
You can follow all news on this event using #heraldfashion