Alexander McQueen has posthumously won a top design award for his spring and summer 2010 fashion collection.

The collection, which suggested a ”futuristic underwater world”, was streamed from a fashion show in Paris live on the internet to 40 million viewers.

The shortlist for Brit Insurance Design of the Year was drawn up before McQueen’s death last month, at the age of 40.

Beth Ditto, the singer, was also in the running in the fashion category for her collection for Evans, the plus-size clothes store.

Paula Reed, judge and style director of Grazia magazine, described McQueen, who was found dead at his luxury London home, as a ”clear winner”.

She said: ”The entire jury wanted to be clear that the choice was not made for any sentimental reason.

”The video presentation of McQueen’s last show is one of the most compelling pieces in the exhibition.

”It works on so many levels. The designer had been working for years on developing fabrics that could blend the hard into soft and had pretty much come close to achieving that in this collection.”

She continued: ”The impressiveness simply compounds the enormity of his loss.”

Industry experts nominated international designs across seven categories -transport, fashion, product, graphics, furniture, interactive and architecture.

An overall winner from the categories will be announced on March 16.

The winning entries and shortlisted designs are displayed at the Design Museum in London until June 6.