The multi-talented and distinctively mustachioed Hamish Bowles, Vogue‘s European Editor at Large, is the 2011 recipient of the Pratt Institute Fashion Icon Award, the school announced today. He will receive the award at Pratt’s April 27 runway show, an annual affair that showcases the reliably remarkable work of seniors in the fashion design program. Bowles is the first non-designer recipient of the six-year-old honor, which in previous years has been bestowed on fashion greats including Ralph Rucci, Narciso Rodriguez, and Diane von Furstenberg.

“I am delighted that Pratt Institute has decided to honor me with this award, and to be joining such a distinguished pantheon of past recipients,” said Bowles in a statement issued today by Pratt. “It means a great deal to me to be celebrated in this way by a fashion faculty that is thronged by such lively and inspired talents.” And speaking of lively and inspired talent, Bowles is one busy icon. Recently, in addition to taking on a series of fish-out-water challenges (most of which involve the outdoors) that he has delightfully chronicled in the pages of Vogue, Bowles curated the Cristóbal Balenciaga exhibition on view through February 19 at the Queen Sofía Spanish Institute in New York, and stay tuned for his latest book, Balenciaga and Spain, which will be published in March by Skira Rizzoli.