Winners 2022

Outstanding Achievement Award

Mohamed Benchellal is a Dutch-Moroccan fashion designer, coutrier, and founder of the womenswear label; Benchellal. His work is characterized by voluminous silhouettes and sculptural cuts. Playing with the concept of complementary opposites, his designs are both classical and contemporary, whimsical yet precise, lavish yet monochrome and glamorous yet sustainable.
Mohamed Benchellal was born in the Netherlands to Moroccan parents; who immigrated to the Netherlands in the late sixties. His fascination with fashion began at a young age, as he was often
surrounded by fabric and the sounds of industrial sewing machines, within the textile workplace of his grandparent’s home. His upbringing instilled a hard-working do-it-yourself approach to life. He soon began experimenting himself, taking apart his clothes and reconstructing them into new creations.

Distinguished Recognition for Contribution to African Fashion

Dr. Christine Checinska

Dr Christine Checinska is a British artist, designer, curator & storyteller. Her work explores the relationship between cloth, culture and race.

Her PhD, Colonizin’ in Reverse! (Goldsmiths, London, 2009), examines the impact of creolised Caribbean culture on English male dress, and questions the relative absence of culturally diverse voices within Global North fashion and textiles studies. Through such work she invokes an interconnected and equitable art and design world where Black creativity, with all its nuances and contradictions, is nurtured and respected.