HEROINES OF OUR LIVES
The Bazaar sisterhood gathered together at Claridge’s as we celebrated our annual Women of the Year Awards
‘I think we all agree that we have to change the world and we have to do that together,’ said Keira Knightley as she accepted the Actress accolade at the Bazaar Women of the Year Awards, held in partnership with Michael Kors and Mercedes-Benz. Indeed, anything felt possible on an evening in which a sense of unity and sisterhood prevailed. Following a Laurent-Perrier Cuvée Rosé reception, and a candlelit dinner in Claridge’s ballroom, women from the worlds of fashion, art, music and film were honoured at a glittering ceremony.
‘I feel this room is full of kindness,’ said Justine Picardie, Bazaar’s editor-in-chief, addressing the guests seated at tables that had been beautifully decorated with bunches of white roses and hydrangeas from Flowerbx. Resplendent in a monochrome Mary Katrantzou dress, Jenna Coleman (Bazaar’s Television Actress of the Year) embraced the designer, while Adwoa Aboah stroked the bump of eight-months pregnant Arizona Muse.
Accepting her prize for Editor’s Choice, Lily James said: ‘I am in awe of the women in this room,’ while the director Dominic Savage described his leading lady Gemma Arterton, the winner for Outstanding Performance, as ‘real, truthful, full of integrity, courageous, forthright’. The Virago chair Lennie
Goodings’ tribute to Sarah Waters, our Writer of the Year, was simpler but equally
heartfelt: ‘I must say I just love her.’
Hope was another of the evening’s recurrent themes. ‘I do what I do because I believe in all of us. We are the
ones who decide the future,’ declared Gina Miller, the Campaigner of the Year, in a moving address, before Cameron Russell, winner of the Role Model award, gave a rousing and presidential finale. The model and activist christened 2018 ‘the year of feminine leadership’ and urged the audience to ‘commit to a single bold choice in the next month’, sending guests to the after party in the French Salon with a spring in their step. ellen peirson-hagger