Dazed’s Jefferson Hack was this weekend announced as the recipient of a Special Recognition Award at the 2022 Fashion Awards. The category celebrates those who have made outstanding contributions to the fashion industry, and as this year’s Cultural Curation honoree, Hack will be applauded for having empowered new wave talent across fashion, design, art, and music for over three decades. With the star-studded ceremony slated to take place on Monday December 5, Hack will step into a legacy shared by Tommy Hilfiger, Kate Moss, and Chris Moor. 

In 1991, a 19-year-old Hack co-founded Dazed & Confused with Rankin, cobbling together a four-page pamphlet in the hallways of the London College of Printing that had the gall to declare itself as so much more. “This is not a magazine,” its tagline read, “this is not a conspiracy to force opinion into the subconscious of stylish young people. A synthetic leisure culture is developing – plastic people force fed on canned entertainment and designer food. This is urban ideas for creative people. People who want to read – something else”. And in the thirty years that have passed, the Dazed name has ballooned to include Another, Another Man, Nowness, Dazed Digital, Dazed Beauty, and Dazed Studio. 

More than a tastemaker, Hack has proved himself a bloodline to the fashion industry’s most prolific journalists, photographers, stylists, and designers, counting Alexander McQueen, Vivienne Westwood, Karl Lagerfeld, Rihanna, and Björk among his close collaborators. He is also an LVMH Prize judge, a Frieze curator, an advisor for Superblue and Circa, an author, and an advocate for Crisis Action and Parlay for the Oceans. “We are thrilled to be honouring Jefferson Hack with the Special Recognition Award for Cultural Curation,” Caroline Rush, CEO of the British Fashion Council said. “Hack is being awarded for his incredible contribution to culture, art, and fashion as well as his limitless energy and time for growing and investing in people. Over the past three decades, his commitment to empowering youth through creativity has defined the zeitgeist and shaped the future, making him one of the most exciting creative voices of a generation. We look forward to celebrating with him in London in December.”