Bethany Williams Wins Emerging Talent for Menswear Award at the British Fashion Awards

By Tamara Cincik

Last night saw Bethany Williams, a core member of our Fashion Roundtable community, who has spoken on our panels, fed into our evidence sessions and even attended my birthday party last month, win the Emerging Talent for Menswear Award at the British Fashion Awards.

Honestly, this could not go to a nicer person: I have worked in the fashion industry for over 20 years and I have rarely met someone so genuinely kind, whose values of community based grass-roots activism are sewn into her work as a designer committed to exploring social and environmental change, working with the marginalised to bring about positive change and social enterprise.

From working with Adelaide House, a Liverpool women's refuge, to collaborating with Vauxhall Food Bank, all at a time when women's refuges are being closed against the backdrop of austerity and when food bank usage has risen from 41,000 to 1.2 million in the last 9 years according to The Trussell Trust. Bethany has used her platform as a designer, working with sustainable principles as an agency to change the conversation and highlight social justice issues. As someone whose own work has traversed policy, politics and yet remained a fashion industry insider, I find real value in Bethany and her talent. She won the Queen Elizabeth II Award this year, and deservedly so, receiving the award from the Duchess of Cornwall. I watched the show from the front row and could not have been prouder. At a time in which socio-politics and sustainability issues are at the forefront of many of our minds, this pioneering designer isn’t just protesting, like Fashion Roundtable she offers collaborative solutions and positive actions.