ICON pays tribute to culture and creativity at its fourth annual awards

Madrid’s 300-year-old Royal Tapestry Factory served last night as the spectacular backdrop for the fourth edition of the ICON Awards. EL PAÍS’s monthly men’s lifestyle magazine, with Lucas Arraut at the helm these past five years, brought together leading figures from the arts and journalism to honor and celebrate culture and creativity.

ICON celebrates all those at the cutting edge of men’s lifestyles in all their diversity. Dries Van Noten, who has smashed stereotypes in men's fashion with his unusual prints and multicultural references in wearable, real-world clothes, won the  Designer of the Year award. Van Noten has blazed a trail in the world of fashion and this year has been one of his best ever: he was one of the few to win rave reviews at Paris Fashion Week with his collections for both men and women. He picked up his prize from his colleague Palomo Spain.

The singer Rosalía, in the running for five Latin grammys, won the ICON “Loewe Solo Ella” Woman 2018 Award, which she picked up from filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar – who’ll be directing her in his next film, Dolor y Gloria, and where she’ll star alongside Penelope Cruz and Antonio Banderas. The woman behind the hit single Malamente has revolutionized the music industry with her fusion of flamenco and urban style.

Someone else to have shaken up the music sector is Brisa Fenoy, author of the catchy song Lo Malo, popularized by Aitana and Ana Guerra from Operación Triunfo. Composer, model and activist, Fenoy has raised awareness with her lyrics, her messages on social networks and as the face of the Top Manta brand, created by Barcelona's street sellers. Her hard work earned her the the award for Cultural Agitation, given to her by actresses Anna Castillo and Najwa Nimri.

The ICON Fashion Award went to Spain’s most international model: Andrés Velencoso, who has been on the catwalks for 20 years and has now been an actor for more than five, most recently in TV series Velvet Collección. The model Eugenia Silva gave him his award.

The actor Álvaro Morte, who played Sergio Marquina in La casa de papel (Money Heist), presented the award for Television Production to the hit show’s creator Álex Pina, who’s also behind other successful shows such as Vis a vis.

RcR Arquitectos studio was honored with the Architecture prize, given by Rafael de la Hoz. The Volkswagen ICON Award for Innovation and Design went to the designer Jorge Penadés, who picked it up from Eva Vicente, director of Communications and External Relations of the car company in Spain.

The EL PAÍS journalist Nacho Carretero, author of Fariña, which is now a successful TV series, thanks to Atresmedia and Netflix, won the Literature Award, given to him by his colleague at the newspaper Manuel Jabois and the actor from the series Tristán Ulloa. Carretero has just published En el corredor de la muerte (On death row), the story of Pablo Ibar, a Spanish prisoner in the US for 24 years.