IN the past three years, its tartan carpet has been graced by the likes of Dame Shirley Bassey, Samantha Cameron, Alexa Chung, Lulu, and Stella Tennant.

Now the Scottish Fashion Awards is to leave Glasgow for a new, as yet undisclosed city.

Dubbed the Oscars of Scottish style, the eighth annual event has also been postponed until late autumn after a family bereavement for its founder, Tessa Hartmann.

The awards, of which The Herald and Sunday Herald are long-standing media partners, have attracted fashionistas to Glasgow each June since 2010.

This year's ceremony was to have been on Sunday, June 9, and guests from the industry were warned to "save the date".

But it will now be delayed until late October or early November.

The decision to postpone the ceremony was taken by Ms Hartmann, after the recent death of her mother, Tessa Fraser.

Ms Hartmann, who was given an honorary doctorate by Glasgow Caledonian University in 2012 for her services to Scottish fashion at home and internationally, said the delay would allow her to focus on her family over the coming months.

She said: "I just felt that I have to put the family first. The next six weeks are normally my craziest time.

"I've spoken to all my sponsors and everyone is fine. It will give me a couple of weeks to get my head around it all and then I'll get back into the swing of it."

She said that switching to a new city would let her showcase more of Scotland to guests flown in from the United States, Italy, Russia, Singapore and Dubai.

The first Scottish Fashion Awards took place in May 2006 as a way to honour Scots working in the fashion industry, including designers, models and textile companies.

After being staged for four years at Stirling Castle, the event was moved to Glasgow Science Centre in June 2010, where it returned in June 2011.

Last year was the first time tickets were available to the general public for the ceremony, at the Clyde Auditorium.

More than 2000 people attended the event hosted by British style icon Alexa Chung.

Dr Who star Karen Gillan collected the Scottish Fashion Icon title, Lanarkshire-born designer Christopher Kane took home Scottish Designer of the Year and Annie Lennox's model daughter, Tali Lennox, was named Model of the Year.

Famous faces at the event included Sugababe Jade Ewen, supermodels David Gandy and Stella Tennant, and Dutch footballer Edgar Davids with fashion designer fiancee Olcay Gulsen.

Ms Hartmann added: "It's a national event and it very much has global awareness, so it's only fair to share it around. It should be ownable by Scotland rather than ownable by a city.

"Glasgow has been brilliant and Stirling Castle was amazing. It's all about keeping the brand alive."

A spokesman for Glasgow City Council said: "We are very disappointed by this news."