The Triumph Inspiration Awards

It’s not everyday that you get invited into the front room of super-stylist Charlotte Stockdale – so it was with a little respect and a lot of excitement that I geared up for a fashion show of the sexiest and most stylish degree put on at her London flat.

Legendary lingerie brand Triumph celebrated 125 years of fashion, innovation and femininity last Thursday by inviting some of the country’s up-and-coming underwear designers to display what may well end up on the label’s rails next year.

Students from respected fashion universities De Montford and the London College of Fashion sent their inspirations down the catwalk under a design brief titled 125 Years of Celebrating Women. Twenty undergrads between both universities had just a few seconds up and down the catwalk to showcase their signature piece in an attempt to win the coveted Triumph Inspiration Award.

As a bloke who knows his Hermès from his Hackett, fashion shows are something of a treat for me anyway but – and this is between you and me guys – the lingerie models were out of this world, which made the event itself a real testament to the beauty and celebration of the female figure.

It’s strange when you glance over the runway at London Fashion Week and see so many people staring at the model’s faces and legs instead of the fashion draped over their bodies. But it’s now so much about the whole package that a slender figure and a quirky-pretty face can actually sell collections as much as the clothes.

Even Jameela Jamil, Channel 4’s grunge-glam queen, commented on how we had just witnessed some of the best bums around. Jamil was one of six guest judges who were given the tricky task of selecting one UK winner to represent British design talent at the Inspiration Award’s global final in Berlin in July.

That winner was 21-year-old Emma Walters, whose design inspiration fused old and new through an interactive, old-style white corset that opened up to give the model an angelic silhouette with wings. The intricacy of the corset’s interior was something to behold with a twisted fabric front, a lime-green detail and text which spelled out celebrated feminine traits such as ‘the Grace’ and ‘the Bravery’.

One of the other designers who caught my eye was Nabila Omar, who created a beautifully-designed Arabic-inspired set that boasted an incredible amount of pleats and folds with a mix of textures and jewels. Fiona Coxon’s First and Second World War piece was also well designed, with a Medieval-leather look that borrowed from the braces and buttons of the wars’ industrial women workers.

Created, judged, presented, modelled and inspired by women, the Triumph Inspiration Awards were not only an insight into the raw talent that this country has to offer, but a reminder of how impressively dominant the female force is in fashion.