The third edition of fashion conglomerate LVMH Young Fashion Designer Award
includes not one, but three young designers who are based in Paris –
indicating that the French capital still holds its allure for fashion
design.
Together with the 5 remaining finalists, which hail from the UK, the US and
Japan, the finalists will compete for a cash prize of 300,000 euros and a
year of mentoring to help take their fashion business to the next level.
“The list reflects the vitality of the French fashion scene and the
attractiveness of Paris for designers from all over the world,” said
Delphine Arnault, the brain-child behind the award and executive vice
president of Louis Vuitton.
The trio of Parisian based designers include Christelle Kocher, Glenn
Martens and Tuomas Merikoski. Kocher is a French designer who designs her
label’s Koché collections for both genders, combining a casual yet
luxurious, near haute couture aesthetic to her work. She
was shortlisted for the LVMH Prize in 2015. Martens is the Belgian creative
director behind the women’s and men’s wear collection for Y/Project, taking
inspiration from a variety of subcultures. Lastly, Merikoski,
who originally hails from Finland, is the man behind women’s wear label
Aalto. He has collaborated with several large fashion houses, including
Givenchy and Louis Vuitton and shown his ready-to-wear collection at Paris
Fashion Week since Spring/Summer 2016.
The other five finalists include UK designer Grace Wales Bonner, a Central
Saint Martins graduate whose graduate collection Afrique won the
L’Oréal Professional Talent Award in 2014. She debuted Ebonics A/W 15 with
Fashion East at London Collections: Men to critical acclaim and after her
first season, she was invited to join the V&A’s prestigious Fashion in
Motion programme. In addition, Wales Bonner contemporary menswear and
womenswear collections are sold in international stockists including LNCC,
SSense and 10 Corso Como. The other four finalists count two American
designers based in New York – Matthew Williams, who designs women’s
wear under the label Alyx and Brandon Maxwell, who design a eponymous
women’s collection; 19 year old Canadian designer Veja Kruszewski, who
designs collections for men and women under his Vejas label; and Japanese
designer Hiromichi Ochiai, who designs under the Facetasm brand.
The eight finalists where hand selected from the who where flown to Paris
during its bi-annual fashion week to meet LVMH preselection team of 41
industry experts which include retailers, photographer, editors and models.
Close to a 1,000 designers applied online for the third edition of the
award which has helped boost the careers of a number of designers,
including Thomas Tait, Paulo Almeida and Marta Marques, the team behind the
Marques’Almeida, as well as Simon Porte Jacquemus and Nikita and Tina
Sutradhar for Minunuki and Hood by Air’s Shayne Oliver who were recipients
of special awards from LVMH. Now nearing the final stage of the award, the
finalists have been invited to come together at the Louis Vuitton
Foundation in Paris to show their work to a jury of eight fashion experts
from LVMH own illustrious fashion houses.
The jury consists of Loewe artistic director Jonathan Anderson, creative
director for Louis Vuitton Nicolas Ghesquiere, Marc Jacobs, Fendi’s Karl
Lagerfeld, Kenzo designers Humberto Leon and Carol Lim, Celine’s Phoebe
Philo, Givenchy’s Riccardo Tisci as well as advisor to LVMH chairman and
chief executive officer Bernard Arnault, Jean-Paul Claverie and Pierre-Yves
Roussel, chairman and ceo of LVMH Fashion Group. Last, but not least
Delphine Arnault. LVMH has facilitated the presentation of 55 designers in
Paris to date since the prize was launched and given out 5 awards.