Nigerian-British designer, Sarah Ajayi scooped the GFW Gold Award, presented by British designer Julien Macdonald.
Sarah Ajayi wins Gold Award at the GFW 2025
Graduate Fashion Week 2025 wrapped up on June 16 at London’s Truman Brewery, but not without one final, unforgettable fashion statement that felt more like a cultural reclamation than a catwalk.
Manchester Metropolitan University’s Sarah Ajayi, who took home the event’s most coveted honour: the Gold Award.
Sarah Ajayi’s collection, ‘Queens of the Market’, didn’t whisper for attention, it demanded it. Inspired by the “power, presence, and grace of African market women,” her pieces weaved together storytelling and technique, using natural raffia, African prints, and forms that evoked the balance, burden, and brilliance of the women who carry the marketplace on their shoulders, figuratively and literally.
Presented by British designer Julien Macdonald, the award came with high praise. Judges applauded Ajayi for her “originality, craft, and creative vision,” while Macdonald highlighted her “special attention to design, detail, construction, and fabric manipulation.” But beyond technique, it was Ajayi’s unapologetic centring of Black womanhood and African tradition that brought the room to its feet.
Sarah Ajayi Collection, ‘Queens of the Market’
Queens of the Market opened up a new way of seeing; one where elegance is everyday, power is inherited, and inspiration is drawn from real lives, not moodboards.
