Grace Wales Bonner wins the 2016 LVMH Prize

London – British designer Grace Wales Bonner has been crowned the
winner of the third annual LVMH Prize, the international competition which
celebrates young designers. The London-based designer is set to receive a
cash prize of 300,000 euros in addition to a year-long mentorship from some
of the top executives at fashion conglomerate LVMH.

Grace Wales Bonner is the winner of the LVMH Prize 2016

Her label Wales Bonner is known for its strong gender fluid menswear
collections. A Central Saint Martins graduate, Bonner’s brand was named the
best emerging menswear designer at the 2015 British Fashion Council Awards.
The designer was named the winner from a : Aalto, Alyx, Brandon
Maxwell, Facetasm, Koché, Vejas, Wales Bonner and Y/Project, during an
event at the Louis Vuitton Foundation in Paris.

A photo posted by LVMHPrize (@lvmhprize) on Jun 16, 2016 at 7:02am PDT

A special jury prize was given to Canadian designer Vejas Kruszewski, who
has been awarded 150,000 euro grant plus one year of mentoring. The 19 year
old Kruszewski is the youngest designer to be nominated and awarded a LVMH
Prize for his Toronto-based label Vejas.

The winners were announced during a ceremony at the Louis Vuitton
Foundation, which was live streamed on the company’s social media channels.
The event followed on from a series of presentations made by the designers
in front of the jury which included several of LVMH’s designer champions,
such as Karl Lagerfeld, Phoebe Philo, Marc Jacobs, Nicolas Ghesquière,
Riccardo Tisci, and Jonathan Anderson.

A photo posted by LVMHPrize (@lvmhprize) on Jun 16, 2016 at 6:48am PDT

Bonner follows in the footsteps of the previous winners of the LVMH Prize, which are also based in London and Central Saint Martins graduates. Thomas Tait was hailed the winner of the inaugural LVMH Prize in 2014, followed by the design duo Marques’ Almeida in 2015.