“As we see the potency of the British brand on the world stage, creative and freedom loving, this is the season in which we can also learn to celebrate ourselves,” wrote Sarah Sands of the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee in Walpole’s Book of British Luxury earlier this year.
British luxury is a £48bn powerhouse for a reason – it’s because the brands, and the people responsible for those brands, like you and your highly skilled and talented teams – are creative, inventive, entrepreneurial and tireless in your efforts to bring joy to your customers, wherever they are in the world. I’m not alone in thinking that’s reason enough to celebrate ourselves – it’s something that deserves a lorry-load of laurel wreaths – yet I’m also aware that when you’re so busy being brilliant, it can be hard to take the time to reflect on when and how and why and in which ways you have been delivering that brilliance.
Happily, it’s time to cast modesty aside and shine a bright spotlight on your achievements over the past 12 months: the Walpole British Luxury Awards is expressly designed to help you do just that. We have five categories in which you can (and should, please) nominate your brand for an Award. I have attached the link to the nomination form here (it’s extremely straightforward) and the deadline for entries has been extended to Wednesday14th September, so please do pass it to the right member of your team (if it’s not you) to complete your entry or entries as soon as you can.
Whilst we have a 20-strong academy of tastemakers who have been busily scanning the British luxury horizon for stand-out activity, this year more than any other I also want to see a record number of entries coming from Walpole members themselves. It’s only you who has the inside track on the imagination and graft that has gone into driving your business forward. It’s only you that can truly capture the strategy behind the activity and share with us the impact it had on your brand. If I reflect on all the inspiring and outstanding things I’ve learned about what you’ve been doing when we’ve met up, or from the media or my team, my sense is that 2022 has been a vintage year. I’m incredibly excited to see the stories behind all your successes captured in your entries.
I’d like to invite you to nominate yourself in at least one of the following five categories:
Made in the UK
Creative Collaboration
Luxury Innovation
Sustainable Luxury Brand of the Year
British Luxury Brand of the Year
British Luxury Brand of the Year has always been the big award of the evening and for 2022, Walpole has developed a brand new criteria and new judging process. Firstly, we feel it’s crucial that British luxury brands of all sizes should feel able to nominate themselves, and secondly, we wanted award nominations to be peer-judged by Walpole members. Once we have collected and collated all the entries, you will be sent the top three nominations and I will be asking you and all your fellow Walpole members to vote on the final winner. After all, who is best placed to decide what ‘best’ means in British luxury if it’s not you?
So do, please, nominate your brand in any or all of the above categories. As I mentioned, you can find the Awards Nomination Form, with much more detail on the process and the criteria for each of the categories, here. Don’t forget, the closing date for entries is Wednesday 14th September.
When we gather for the Walpole British Luxury Awards 2022 at The Dorchester on 21st November, it will be an incredible moment to applaud the collective efforts of the sector we work in, and to celebrate the individual achievements of the Award winners. And in a Jubilee year, it’s not only the season in which we learn to celebrate ourselves, it’s also a priceless opportunity to show the world how exceptional British luxury really is.
Best wishes,
Chief Executive Officer, Walpole
