LONDON — At Elle U.K.’s 2025 Style Awards, Burberry’s chief creative officer Daniel Lee picked up the gong for British Brand; Alexa Chung was handed a Timeless Muse award, and Bella Freud’s podcast “Fashion Neurosis With Bella Freud” won the Cult Creative award.
The annual bash drew London actors, musicians, authors and creatives for an intimate celebration in the gilded rooms of Brasserie Zédel. The restaurant interiors matched the golden caps and bubbles of the freeflowing Moët & Chandon Champagne.
The winners came in pairs, with their awards being presented by friends, collaborators and fans.
Daphne Guinness and Bella Freud
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Rosie Huntington-Whiteley presented Lee his award; Beth Ditto handed Chung hers; Clare Waight Keller introduced author Zadie Smith, who picked up the British Icon Award; Munroe Bergdorf was celebrated as Changemaker of the Year; Malala Yousafzai was handed the Inspiration Icon award by musician Little Simz, and rapper Stormzy gave Riz Ahmed his Modern Pioneer award.
Chung, who was wearing an archive Prada dress from 1997, listed her muses in her acceptance speech, including George Harrison, Marianne Faithfull, Julie Christie, Miuccia Prada and her mother, Jill Chung, “whose commitment to a Barbour and loafers I brutally copied, and passed off as my own.”
Some speeches were heartfelt, comical and even self-deprecating at times, while others addressed social and political issues.
Zadie Smith and Clare Waight Keller
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Activist and model Bergdorf recalled her start in the fashion industry as an intern at a PR firm. She resigned in 2010, just when the U.K.’s Equality Act came into effect, making it illegal to fire someone in the workplace based on their gender reassignment.
She feels the U.K. is going backward on those policies. “We’re waiting on laws that are about to be introduced by [Prime Minister] Keir Starmer’s government that would mean we’re segregated from single sex spaces, which is not just a bathroom ban. It’s a ban that will stop trans people from being able to participate in public life,” she said.
She was referring to a U.K. Supreme Court ruling in April that will impact trans people’s access to single-sex spaces and services. But the ruling also affirmed that trans people still have legal protection from discrimination, and gender reassignment remains a protected characteristic.