For a few months now, the inaugural LVMH Young Fashion Designer Prize has been hyped sufficiently for young and budding designers worldwide to partake in. And out of 1,221 applicants, only 30 were shortlisted as semifinalists! It is interesting to note that amongst the semifinlists are Nigerian fashion labels Maki Oh by Amaka Osakwe & Orange Culture by Adebayo Oke-Lawal. According to Delphine Arnault, daughter of fashion tycoon and CEO of LVMH Bernard Arnault, it was difficult to pick the short listed 30 semi-finalists for the LVMH Young Fashion Designer Prize. The task of shortlisting the applicants to 30 was left up to an internal committee, comprised of LVMH employees. The 30 semi-finalist comes from a wide range of countries and include the likes of designers such as Meadham Kirchhoff, Simone Rocha, Thomas Tait and J JS Lee, who are preparing to show their collections at London Fashion Week.
In an exclusive interview, Ms. Arnault (who is the brainchild of this project) told WWD that: “I was really amazed at the number of applicants and the quality of the dossiers we received,”
Staking the sum of €300,000 (or roughly $409,750 at current exchange rates) and a year of mentoring with established fashion designers and heavyweights, it is understandable why there was such a deluge of applications.
According to Fashion Union, other young designers in the semi-finals are: Anna October, Julia Paskal, Kathleen Kay, Vika Gazinskaya, Tillmann Lauterbach, Yang Li, Christopher Shannon, Craig Green, Minju Kim, Lena Lumelsky and Hellen van Rees. The New York-based semifinalists are CG by Chris Gelinas; Creatures of the Wind by Shane Gabier and Christopher Peters; Bruno Pieters of Honest by; Shayne Oliver’s Hood by Air; Tim Coppens, and Suno by Erin Beatty and Max Osterweis. The Paris-based candidates are Julien Dossena for his brand Atto (he also designs Paco Rabanne); Jacquemus by Simon Porte Jacquemus, and Tillmann Lauterbach to name but a few.
A panel of 40 industry experts consisting of Natalie Massenet, founder and of Net-a-porter; Marigay McKee, president of Saks Fifth Avenue; Adrian Joffe, chief executive officer of Comme des Garçons; Carla Sozzani, founder of 10 Corso Como; Sarah Andelman, creative director and purchasing manager of Colette in Paris; fashion editor Carine Roitfeld; photographer Patrick Demarchelier; and makeup artist Pat McGrath will be expected to narrow down the semifinalists from 30 to 10 finalists by voting their choices themselves. The 10 finalists will then make a 20-minute presentation in front of a jury comprised of Karl Lagerfeld, Marc Jacobs, Nicolas Ghesquière, Raf Simons, Riccardo Tisci and Phoebe Philo.
Congratulations to our Nigerian fashion labels Maki Oh and Orange Culture! This is a great feat that has not been attained by anyone in the Continent.