SCOTLAND'S fashion "Oscars" have been forced to move to London due to a lack of support for the event north of the Border, according to the founder of the event.
The Scottish Fashion Awards will be held at Dover House in London this year, the home of the Scottish Office and Scotland's civil servants which has featured as a location in films including the James Bond movie, Skyfall.
Among the judges will be top model Stella Tennant, while Victoria Beckham is one of the big names shortlisted for international designer of the year prize, due to her use of Scottish textiles in her designs.
The event, co-hosted by Scottish Secretary Michael Moore, will honour designers, retailers, models and manufacturers based in Scotland. The awards were launched in 2006 and held in Stirling Castle until 2010, when they moved to Glasgow.
Founder Tessa Hartmann said she was "perturbed" that she did not receive sufficient support to keep the event in Scotland. She said: "It wasn't our intention to take it to London; we had hoped to keep it in Glasgow originally but we couldn't raise the funding we needed from the city or the Scottish Government."
An attempt to move the event to Aberdeenshire also failed as the council could not provide the required support, Hartmann said. "We desperately wanted to keep the awards in Scotland but the process (of finding a venue) had by then taken nearly 10 months," she said. "I had already been liaising with the Secretary of State for Scotland for some time about doing some kind of event at Dover House to champion Scottish designers, for example during London Fashion Week.
"We decided if we couldn't find a city in Scotland, then why not take it to the fashion capital of the UK?"
Hartmann said holding the event in London would showcase talent to an even wider audience.
She said that since the inception of the awards, around 95-97% of the £500,000 event production costs had been raised through private-sector funding, but they faced a shortfall of around £50,000 last year which they hoped public funding could cover.
Hartmann added she was offered £20,000 of financial support to hold the event in Glasgow, adding she would consider holding it in Scotland in future years if sufficient support was in place.
She said: "This isn't just a case of 'what a shame the Scottish Fashion Awards are not in Scotland any more' – for me this is a blatant disregard and ignorance for the industry.
"I was just totally perturbed by the fact there was no major city that wanted to keep it in Scotland.
"But, at the end of the day, London is the fashion capital of the UK and there is no doubt that the opportunities the nominees will have being in London will be phenomenal."
The Scottish Fashion Awards will take place on the October 9, with other high-profile judges including Scottish photographer, Rankin.
Scottish Secretary Michael Moore said: "It's important that we continue to support these awards and as such I'm pleased to welcome them to the home of the Scotland Office in London."
A spokesman for Glasgow City Marketing Bureau (GCMB), the arms-length body set up by the council to promote the city, said it was unaware the decision to move the awards to London had been made.
He added GCMB had offered the same financial support as provided in 2012 – despite "intimations from the organisers the event would be downscaled" – as well as help to promote the event globally.
The spokesman added: "GCMB had also advised the Scottish Fashion Awards that the level of support for 2013 would still be provided irrespective of the awards moving to another host city and, indeed, offered to work collaboratively with the organisers on the 2014 Scottish Fashion Awards given that this will be a landmark year for Glasgow [due to the Commonwealth Games]."
An Aberdeenshire Council spokeswoman confirmed it was approached about holding the event there. She added: "Unfortunately, the funding that we offered was not accepted by organisers and they made the decision to look elsewhere."
In response, Hartmann refuted the claim the awards had been downscaled for 2013, saying she had intended to hold them in the Glasgow Science Centre, the venue which had been used in both 2010 and 2011.
A Scottish Government spokesman said it had provided funding to the Scottish Fashion Awards in its infancy, but it was now an "established event". He added: "At a time when public resources are scarce, Government investment has been directed towards the Scottish fashion industry at grass-roots level."
l For a full list of nominees log on to www.scottishfashionawards.com
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