The Fashion Industry's Unsung Heroes Finally Get Their Due: 1 Granary Shakes Things Up
The recent Fashion Awards, a glittering spectacle at London's Royal Albert Hall, celebrated the usual suspects. Jonathan Anderson, for the third time, claimed Designer of the Year for his work at his eponymous label and Dior. Anok Yai graced the stage as Model of the Year, and Delphine Arnault, Dior's CEO and heir to the LVMH empire, received special recognition for nurturing new talent through the LVMH Prize. It's a familiar narrative – fashion applauding its brightest stars. But here's where it gets interesting: a growing chorus is demanding a shift in focus, and 1 Granary is leading the charge.
While the British Fashion Council's new CEO, Laura Weir, received accolades, criticism also emerged. The anonymous Instagram account, boringnotcom, known for its blunt industry critiques, lamented the predictable nature of the awards: “As predicted, the same names got rotated and won the fashion awards … how utterly boring.”
Enter 1 Granary, a platform dedicated to championing emerging and established talent beyond the figureheads. Their newly launched Design Awards aim to shatter the illusion of solo genius, recognizing the collective effort behind every stunning collection. For every winner, 1 Granary will spotlight the entire team – from junior designers to creative directors. As their press release boldly states, “Instead of repeating the industry’s habit of celebrating one figure at the top, we wanted awards that reflect how fashion really operates: collectively, collaboratively, and through thousands of decisions made by teams who never get to walk a red carpet.” Jonathan Anderson himself acknowledged this reality in his acceptance speech, humbly stating, “I am only the show girl up here. There’s an entire team … I can’t do it without them.”
The 1 Granary Design Awards, with 20 categories, were judged by a diverse panel of designers, including brand heads like Veronica Leoni of Calvin Klein and Julian Klausner of Dries Van Noten, alongside studio teams, totaling around 1,000 voters. While established names like Alaïa, Phoebe Philo, and Chanel still garnered accolades, with Miu Miu securing four awards, including Best Womenswear Collection, the spotlight now extends to the entire team behind these triumphs, reaching 1 Granary’s 19,000 Substack subscribers.
This approach aligns perfectly with 1 Granary’s ethos. Founded in 2012 as a student magazine by Ukrainian-born Olya Kuryshchuk and her peers at Central Saint Martins, it has evolved into a powerful voice advocating for those often overlooked in the fashion industry. Kuryshchuk and her team of six part-timers work tirelessly, from brand recruitment to student projects across 50 universities globally, shedding light on the industry's work culture challenges.
These awards stem from a desire to rectify a long-standing injustice. “We just want to follow a very simple principle, to credit the people who create the work,” Kuryshchuk explains. “Architecture does it, music does it. Fashion, weirdly, is an outlier and it should not be like this.”
Named after the address of the renowned London fashion college, 1 Granary has expanded into a website, Substack newsletter, and Instagram feed (boasting 314,000 followers). Widely read and respected, its influence is undeniable. When Seán McGirr was appointed creative director at Alexander McQueen two years ago, highlighting the lack of diversity in Kering's leadership, 1 Granary sparked a crucial conversation with an Instagram post. More recently, they've tackled issues like AI's impact on stylists and the collapse of online retailer Ssense, even publishing a list of brands owed money by the retailer for their paid Substack subscribers.
1 Granary was at the forefront of a broader movement within fashion, encouraging open dialogue about industry problems previously swept under the rug. Other platforms like boringnotcom (launched in 2024) and Diet Prada (since 2014) have followed suit, fearlessly voicing opinions and calling out issues like cultural appropriation. However, Kuryshchuk draws a clear distinction: “We never shame anyone. We only talk about structural issues. We never highlight individuals or specific brands. We’re not about gossip, we’re not about stirring the pot to get likes. None of us hide our faces. We don’t publish anything we don’t stand for.” This principled approach, she believes, has shielded them from legal repercussions. “Our work is solution-oriented,” Kuryshchuk emphasizes. “If a story doesn’t help move the industry forward, we leave it.” Instead, she sees 1 Granary as “a community hub that advocates for [jobbing] designers.”
Dal Chodha, head of Central Saint Martins’ fashion communication course, applauds 1 Granary’s unique contribution: “its advocacy for those that are behind the scenes.” He likens it to “almost a union in lots of ways. Who do you go to if you work at a major design house?”
Chodha highlights Kuryshchuk’s presence at international fashion weeks and her connections with teams across the industry as pivotal. “She’s not used that to grow her own profile,” he observes. “She’s used that to try to re-establish what the hell fashion is and what it looked like when she started, what it looks like today, and more critically, how we could maintain it, or maintain something, for the future.”
Kuryshchuk’s own experience as a design student fuels her passion. “We all entered fashion education with a very romantic idea of the industry,” she reflects. “And we started discovering that the majority of graduates will never work in design, won’t get jobs.”
She believes 1 Granary’s impact is tangible. “When students graduate now, and they see that the expectations don’t match what they believed, or what is right, they are actually pushing back.” This growing influence has made some quarters of the industry wary. “I think [Kuryshchuk] makes people nervous in the way that union members make people nervous,” Chodha notes, “because she upsets the apple cart. There aren’t many bold voices in our industry talking about the exhausted, exploited designers who are making these collections and are locked in studios overnight.”
Chodha hopes 1 Granary continues its mission, supporting design teams rather than the “show girls” like Anderson. Because it’s “so inside that it’s kind of an outsider, it gets to have that opportunity to be more fearless, perhaps, than a lot of others are.”
But is 1 Granary’s approach enough to truly transform the industry? Can collective recognition truly challenge the cult of the individual designer? The debate is open – let us know your thoughts in the comments.
