Last night, the 2011 WGSN Global Fashion Awards launched in London at the very trendy St Martins Lane Hotel. The who’s who of the London fashion industry turned out en masse to find out who had been shortlisted as candidates for this year’s awards, which celebrate fashion’s most inspirational and innovative.

Representing us Brits, Erdem and Jonathan Saunders both made the shortlist for Most Influential Womenswear Designer alongside Burberry’s Christopher Bailey, Marc Jacobs, Miuccia Prada and Phoebe Philo for Céline.

Flying the flag for accessory design was YBD (Young British Designer) Nicholas Kirkwood, who was nominated for the Footwear and Accessories award, with Camilla Skovgaard, Acne, Alexander Wang and Pierre Hardy.

iFashion was particularly interested in the nominees for best E-tailer, which included our shopping stalwarts, ASOS and Net-A-Porter as well as Farfetch.com, John Lewis, Thecorner.com and My-Wardrobe.com amongst others.

Following last night’s shortlist announcement in London, the winners will be accepting their awards across the pond in NYC on the 20th of October.