UK rapper Stormzy’s Banksy-designed Glastonbury stab-proof vest up for design award

The vest, which was created by the anonymous British street artist, is described as ‘a defining cultural moment’

The Banksy-designed stab-proof vest British rapper Stormzy wore during his headline performance at Glastonbury 2019, is in contention for a major design award. Reuters

His appearance headlining the stage at UK music festival Glastonbury last year drew critical and cultural acclaim.

And the effects felt by UK rapper Stormzy’s history-making turn as the first black British artist to headline the Pyramid stage, are still being felt.

The stab-proof vest, imprinted with the Union Jack flag, which the rapper, 27, wore on stage has been announced as a finalist in the Beazley Designs of the Year prize, the winner of which will be announced by London's Design Museum next month.

The vest has been described as a “defining cultural moment” by the museum. It was designed by British street artist, Banksy, whose real identity is not known. The artist said of the vest: “[It is] capable of stopping bullets up to .45 calibre and is fully stab proof, yet not machine washable.”

After Stormzy finished his set at Glastonbury, Banksy took to Twitter to reveal: "I made a customised stab proof vest and thought – who could possibly wear this? Stormzy at Glastonbury".

Not even the rapper knew who had designed it until Banksy tweeted, leading the Heavy is the Head star to declare himself "absolutely speechless."

Art, shoes and burgers all up for awards

"This year's exhibition explores key moments in design from January 2019 to the moment global attention shifted in late January 2020 when the Covid-19 pandemic took hold — the selected projects respond to urgent questions of inequality and censorship, health and sanitisation, and the ongoing possibilities of design and technology," the director of London's Design Museum, Tim Marlow, told the Evening Standard.

There are 74 design works in contention for awards across six categories – architecture, digital, fashion, graphics, product and transport.

There will be a winner in each individual category, as well as an overall winner who will be announced on Thursday, November 26.

The technology used to de-age Robert De Niro and Al Pacino in Martin Scorsese's Netflix movie, The Irishman is one of the works being considered, along with the Parks family house from the Oscar-winning South Korean film, Parasite, which was built from a sketch drawn by the director, Bong Joon-ho.

Also in contention is the vegan Impossible Burger 2.0; The Renegade, a dance choreographed by the then 14-year-old Jalaiah Harmon, which went viral on TikTok; Nike's Vaporfly running shoe, which was worn by Kenyan Eliud Kipchoge when he became the first athlete to run a marathon in under two hours in 2019; a self-sanitising door handle, and a school which can be quickly put up and dismantled in response to forced evictions of farming communities in India.

The exhibition opens at the Design Museum in London on Wednesday, October 21 and runs until March 28, 2021.