Pangea, Alaffia, Summersalt and Vuori are Glossy Beauty and Fashion Awards winners in 2022

The 2022 Glossy Awards honor the companies and campaigns that have helped define the worlds of beauty and fashion over the past year.

This year’s winners highlight key stories of growing businesses working tirelessly to reach millennials and Generation Z — critical audiences whose values differ sharply from previous generations. Additionally, this year’s recipients have focused on people of all body types, skin colors, hair variations and more; diversity and inclusion are again part of the beauty and fashion story in 2022.

Moreover, the judge’s picks this year spotlight the importance of responding to the times, and, to that end, winning teams featured future-minded founders, sustainable business practices and innovative partnerships. All proved to be essential ingredients for brands looking to make a splash, respect their customers and remain at the forefront of their shoppers’ minds — and wallets.

Pangea, for example, took first place in the Glossy Beauty Awards in the category of Best Sustainability Initiative. In addition to its 100% plastic-free, recyclable and renewable packaging, Pangea’s ingredients are ethically sourced from communities it works with closely. Furthermore, the brand has now added to its mission to inspire and unify other brands to create a more sustainable plastic-free world with the hashtag #LifeAfterPlastic, creating a turtle icon that other brands can use on their products to demonstrate their commitments to supporting change.

The Glossy Beauty Awards founder of the year is Olowo-n’djo Tchala, at Alaffia, in 2022. Founded by Tchala in 2004, Alaffia has been a leader in addressing the unfair systems women in Africa face when trading valuable natural resources. Tapping products from the women-led Alaffia Village Co-op. Furthermore, empowerment Projects put Alaffia’s mission into action, with initiatives funded by its profits. The programs, including the company’s Maternal Care Empowerment Project, Reforestation Empowerment Project, Regenerative Agriculture Program, Eyeglass Program and Bicycle Project, provide support for maternal care, job creation, education, reforestation and regenerative agriculture to West African communities to help them rise out of poverty.

In the Glossy Fashion Awards, Summersalt won for Most Inclusive Brand, based on its launch of the ‘Every Body is a Summersalt Body’ campaign. The program challenged the old-fashioned view of swimwear and who should be wearing it while shining a light on women’s true beauty and power everywhere. The campaign featured 24 accomplished women aged 23–73 to promote body positivity and self-confidence.

Meanwhile, Joe Kudla takes the Founder of the Year award on the Glossy Fashion side for his groundbreaking work with Vuori. Under Joe’s leadership, the company received a $4 billion valuation in October 2021, and following six years of steady growth and prescient market anticipation, Joe led his team in securing $400 million of investment from Softbank Vision Fund 2. Kudla is now leading Vuori in an international expansion into Europe, Asia, Australia and Canada in 2022, partnering with various leading wholesale partners in select geographies, including Selfridges, Brown Thomas, Cotswold Outdoor, Barry’s Bootcamp and Bever, and simultaneously opening more than 100 stores in the U.S. between today and 2026.

Below, explore the Glossy Beauty Awards and the Glossy Fashion Awards — each slide, and the guide as a whole, showcases the winning programs, highlighting what worked best for the creators who made them and the lessons marketers can take from the campaigns our judges selected.