Kirkwood wins, Kors commits, Gucci goes green

Fashion prize: The incredibly talented shoe designer Nicholas Kirkwood has won the British Fashion Council/Vogue Designer Fashion Fund prize, which includes 200,000 British pounds (more than $315,000) to help grow his business. The London-based Kirkwood is one of a new generation of creators pushing shoe design to new extremes. He isn't inspired in the traditional fashion-designer sense by a place or person. Instead, he's more of an architect of shoes. "Usually, it's about finding an interesting organic shape, or just playing around and doodling," he told Times Fashion Critic Booth Moore in 2011.

By Booth Moore and Adam Tschorn

January 30, 2013