Cityco to organise Best of Manchester Awards

The Best of Manchester Awards are returning for a fourth year.

The Urbis legacy project is now being organised by Cityco, Manchester’s city centre management company, and will have three awards with a focus on fashion to coincide with its ‘Manchester - Heart of Fashion’ marketing campaign, which is launched next monthThe awards also offer professional development and contacts.

The three categories are:

New designer - an award dedicated solely to acknowledging Manchester graduate talent.

Small independent retailer/designer of the year - this category acknowledges smaller businesses and individual designers and their invaluable contribution to the economic, cultural and artistic landscape of the city; ensuring Manchester’s consuming experience is unique and distinct.

A lifetime achievement in fashion award – to reflect Manchester’s past impact and huge, inimitable influence upon fashion, this category will acknowledge the career of a pioneering Manchester designer of the judges choosing.

Judges include Manchester’s creative director Peter Saville; Dolly Jones of Vogue.com; Caroline Rush, chief executive, British Fashion Council; Claire Lomax, co-founder, Flux Magazine; Jessica Lowe, press and marketing manager, Harvey Nichols; Rob Warner, design director, Umbro; Helen Tither, Manchester Evening News and Oscar Pinto Hervia, creative director of Hervia Baazar and Hervia Ltd.

Vaughan Allen, chief executive of Cityco, said: “As ever, the awards are taking an innovative approach to promoting the creative hub of the city. This time the prime focus is on Manchester’s burgeoning fashion creatives and industries, and comprising of three new categories.

“It’s not just about a glittering awards ceremony and a prize on the night, but about how we work with creative designers and independent retailers to open doors for their future careers—how we work with them over the next year to maximise their creative skills.

“These awards are designed to spotlight the work of the most outstanding creative professionals in Manchester’s fashion sector, and in doing so further raise the profile of those individuals and the industry as a whole.”

Previous winners and nominees include Rags to Bitches, which went on to be nominated for Womenswear Retailer of the Year at the Drapers Magazine Awards; Junk Shop, which launched a new collection with TopShop and a commission from Oxfam Boutique, and Nabil El Nayal, an MMU fashion graduate. Last year’s fashion winner, Holly Russell, also an MMU alumnus, has had her designs worn by Lady Gaga.

Each winner will be offered a tailored prize to suit their specific requirements. The award ceremony will take place in October, supported by the Manchester Fashion Network.