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As the legendary photographic duo are announced as this year's recipients of the prestigious prize, Vogue speak to them about what the honour means – and explore why it is so well-deserved. There are few people who have had the same visual impact within contemporary fashion as Mert and Marcus: two photographers who have, throughout their 25-year-career, acted as creative pioneers and opened up the realms of fantasy afforded by digital manipulation. “They came into the industry after we’d been through a period of grunge, and experienced a certain rawness, but they offered something entirely different: an idea of artifice and glamour that introduced a new aesthetic to fashion,” explains Edward Enninful. “Plus, there’s always something uneasy about their vision. A Mert and Marcus picture is never just about what you see at first: their girl might be beautiful, but she’ll have talons for nails. There’s something unsettling about that beauty.” That glossy sense of subversion has, over the course of their career, been applied to everyone from Madonna to Oprah; Kate Moss to Rihanna – and now, in celebration of their achievements, they are being honoured with The Isabella Blow Award for Fashion Creator at The British Fashion Council’s annual Fashion Awards. Held on December the 10th, they duo will join a pantheon that includes the likes of Enninful, Pat McGrath and Louise Wilson. “It’s a great honour to be given this award – particularly because of the name attached to it: someone who’s very important in our creative life,” explains Mert. “But also it’s very important to be recognised by the establishment; by all the people who comprise the British Fashion Council.”

Stormzy @stormzy has announced that he is launching The Stormzy Scholarship, which will provide financial support to four black students attending the University of Cambridge. Set up to pay for tuition fees and a maintenance grant for up to four years of an undergraduate degree, the scholarship will fund two students this year and two in 2019. “There are so many young black kids all over the country who have the level of academic excellence to study at a university such as Cambridge - however we are still under-represented at leading universities," the rapper, who made the announcement during A-Level results day at his former school, Harris Academy in Crystal Palace, says. "I hope this scholarship serves as a small reminder that if young black students wish to study at one of the best universities in the world, then the opportunity is yours for the taking - and if funding is one of the barriers, then we can work towards breakin Oxbridge (the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge) has recently been criticised for not admitting enough students from black, Asian and minority ethnic.

Following a road accident, Shaina West reinvented herself as a cartoon-inspired martial artist and Instagram star: The Samurider… ‘My motorbike accident was four years ago now. I don’t actually remember it, but from what witnesses said, I was splitting lanes and a van pulled out to the right and cut me off. I was pretty badly concussed, fractured my neck and broke my thumb. My boyfriend at the time broke up with me before I even had the chance to leave the hospital. Because I couldn’t fulfil my contract at work, they had to let me go. It was a low point in my life, but thinking about it now, it was absolutely necessary. I don’t think I would have been able to muster up the same motivation if I hadn’t had that setback. Growing up, I was always really into comic books, action movies, video games and all that superhero stuff. After my accident, I was stuck in the house for weeks on end and binge-watched anime shows. I had this feeling that I wanted to become a real-life anime character. Something inside me said: You know what? I’m going to get up from my bed and start teaching myself martial arts! I literally taught myself in my bedroom, using YouTube and other internet tutorials. I started off by training with a couple of plastic knives. My mum, who is quite traditionally Ghanaian, was worried to say the least! After being in my room for several weeks, I suddenly had what probably appeared to her to be quite erratic and extreme hobbies – though she’s completely on board with it now.