Style awards shelved amid funding woes

IT IS enough to have the nation's glitterati crying into their designer handbags - or sporrans. One of the most glamorous events in the calendar has been quietly shelved amid rumours of behind-the-scenes funding problems.

• Scottish Style Awards organiser Mary McGowne and singer Sophie Ellis Bextor at last year's event

The Scottish Style Awards saw a host of pop and rock singers, models and film stars head down the red carpet. But the event - graced by the likes of Shirley Manson, James McAvoy, KT Tunstall, Sharleen Spiteri and Edith Bowman - has been cancelled after five years, despite being the flagship event for Glasgow's "Scotland With Style" campaign.

Fashion industry insiders told The Scotsman difficulties raising commercial sponsorship and public funding were believed to be behind the decision.

The news emerged just weeks after the British Academy of Film and Television Arts revealed it had cancelled its annual award ceremony north of the Border. Bafta, which honoured major home-grown film and television productions with the event, has promised a "new and improved" ceremony next year.

Glasgow City Marketing Bureau, which runs the Scotland With Style campaign, was hit by council budget cuts this year. The city's annual River Festival was axed, and it also lost the right to stage the BBC's Proms in the Park event.

The style awards, held in a different location every year, such as the Tramway Theatre and Kelvingrove Art Gallery, has had regular sponsors, including Mot & Chandon and VisitScotland.

However, this year the organisers of another major industry event, the Scottish Fashion Awards, relocated from Stirling to Glasgow in June.

Mary McGowne, whose PR and events firm Vine was behind the style awards, said: "We've genuinely been too busy on other projects this year and we decided some time ago not to go ahead. It was nothing to do with funding, we've just moved the event to next year."

Tessa Hartmann, organiser of the Scottish Fashion Awards, said: "The reality these days is that if you're going to put on event like that you have to secure 95 per cent of your funding from the private sector."

VisitScotland denied it had pulled out of the event, which was backed last year as part of the Year of Homecoming.