Photographer Alex Brook Lynn takes us up close for a look at the tenth edition of LVMH Prize made up of 22 Nominees.
The prestigious LVMH Prize for Young Fashion Designers is the one to watch for up-and-coming talent and the showroom during Paris Fashion Week brings all of the creatives under one roof made up of 22 nominees.
LVMH Prize celebrated the 2023 Semifinalists with a cocktail reception during Paris Fashion Week where entertainment and industry heavyweights included Sophie Turner, the Ambassador of the LVMH Prize 2023 Semifinal, Alexa Chung, Stella McCartney, Coco Rocha, Eddy de Pretto, Ibrahim Kamara, Antoine Arnault, Sarah Andelman, Jemima Kirke, Ella Emhoff, Honey Dijon, Anna Wintour among others. Joining the experts this season are Piergiorgio Del Moro, Tiffany Godoy, Gabriella Karefa-Johnson, Lina Kutsovskaya, Harry Lambert, and Law Roach.
Over the ten years, the prize has shortlisted some of the biggest names in fashion today while previous winners, including the Karl Lagerfeld Prize, exploring menswear have included S.S. Daley, ERL, KidSuper, Ahluwalia, Casablanca, Hed Mayner, Doublet, Marine Serre, Grace Wales Bonner, Jacquemus, and Hood by Air among others.
The winner of the LVMH Prize for Young Fashion Designers receives a 300,000-euro endowment and enjoys a year-long mentorship by a dedicated LVMH team. The Karl Lagerfeld Prize also rewards a young designer with a 150,000-euro allocation and allows him or her to benefit from a year of mentoring.
Here are some of the talents you need to know!
BETTTER: Julie Pelipas is a former Fashion Director of Vogue Ukraine, with 15 years of experience in the fashion industry. In addition, she has provided sustainability and creative direction consultancy for numerous brands. In 2019, Pelipas launched Bettter, an upcycling system that operates as a platform with a shared purpose. Bettter reworks dead stock garments and produces inclusive clothes by using customers’ body metrics. Following the war in Ukraine, she launched the bettter.COMMUNITY, working to bring the vibrant creativity of her native country to the wider world and to keep Ukrainian businesses growing. She also acts as Ambassador for the No More Plastic Foundation.
BLOKE: A label touching on a distinct sense of luxury that merges contemporary design and crafts. Founded by Faith Oluwajimi in 2015, Bloke creates ethically made garments that champion inclusivity and collaboration, forging a path of cultural exploration and an avant-garde approach to textile and knitwear. Celebrating the exuberance of its local environment, Bloke challenges the relationship between art, culture and fashion with its well-crafted and experimental designs.
JUNTAE KIM: Juntae Kim founded his namesake gender-fluid brand in 2022, following the success of his MA collection. His philosophy lies in “unraveling binary constructions: true beauty is not about constraining the body, but loosening it.” Reinterpreting historical women’s costumes as contemporary menswear, thereby ushering in a novel genderless fashion. Juxtaposing traditional crafts and contemporary techniques, the brand also aims to modernize ancient textiles and know-how. Moreover, it takes stereotypical Asian tropes, subverts them, and introduces them to diverse communities regardless of race, gender, and class, in order to promote integration.
KUSIKOHC: One of many creative outlets of Cho Giseok, who has found success in photography, creative direction, set design, sculpting, drawing, and more. Kusikohc is rooted in messages of community, identity, and reinvention and boasts an uncompromising motto, “Right to Fail,” which champions authentic individuality. In Giseok’s collections, a coarse and unsettled reality is suddenly juxtaposed against softer, sometimes floral motifs. With Kusikohc, Giseok takes his unique conceptual and cinematic style to another level. Through ground-up compositions, in which he oversees everything from clothing and art direction to photography itself, Giseok has built a uniquely nuanced channel through which to transmit his interpretation.
LOUIS SHENGTAO CHEN: Founded in 2021, it aims at challenging the traditional notions of glamour, Louis Shengtao Chen strives to redefine luxury through an experimental approach. Louis fuses dramatic and storied design to construct a boundary-breaking yet accessible brand philosophy, elegantly combining exaggerated colours with unconventional fabrics. Blending fun into the brand’s exquisite craftsmanship, Louis Shengtao Chen composes an ever-evolving ode to celebrate life, beauty, attitude, and dreams.
LUAR: The label is by Brooklyn-based designer Raul Lopez co-founder of Hood By Air. Of Dominican descent, Lopez began to design at the age of 12 and growing up was inspired by the fluidity of the downtown New York scene. The philosophy of Luar lies in the intersection of New York City and the Dominican Republic, promoting constant curiosity about tomorrow. In 2018, Lopez was a finalist for the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund. Since then, the popularity of the brand’s signature Ana Bag has won Lopez a 2022 nomination for the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund’s American Accessory Designer of the Year, as well as being included in TIME Magazine’s 2022 “Next 100” List.
MARRKNULL: Founded by Tim Shi and Mark Wang in 2016. Together, they hope to re-examine the very construction of clothes via different design angles, explore the meaning of fashion with their own unique design language, and become fashion innovators.
The brand integrates past and contemporary Chinese culture and reflects on the normality of contemporary life to inspire a new generation. Marrknull blends a unique fashion attitude with anti-fashion. It removes the inherent functionality of clothing, thereby shaping a future style that combines a historical outlook with a contemporary approach.
NAMESAKE: Founded by three brothers to honour their father, and is a dialogue between different generations. Translating to “in the name of the father” from Chinese, the brand centres its designs around the concept of juxtaposition, sports vs. agriculture, basketball vs. fishing, alongside personal anecdotes from the brothers’ own travel diaries. In doing so, it embraces and reconciles internal differences resulting from the generation gap. Introducing Namesake, a narrative created by one generation, and told by the next.
STINARAND: Stinarand is a Swedish design studio founded by Stina Randestad in 2021. With an MA from The Swedish School of Textiles under her belt, she explores techniques and material combinations of the most innovative nature. Randestad’s work can be described as sculptural yet wearable, where rich textures create optical illusions and enhance the movement of the body. Since its foundation, the studio has taken on creative projects and collaborations with sustainability at its core, creating upcycled textiles and one-off showpiece garments in-house. Stinarand aims to continuously move the needle on the perception of sustainable fashion, exploring materials as a start for creation.
WATARU TOMINAGA: is an eponymous fashion brand founded in 2019, with a focus on experimental prints and textiles. The designer creates garments that are both inspiring and a nod to the past. His work is the true embodiment of eclecticism. In 2016, Tominaga won the Grand Jury Première Vision Prize at the International Festival in Hyères. He was the resident artist at Le Pavillon Neuflize OBC at Palais de Tokyo in Paris (2016-2017) while continuing to showcase his collections at Berlin Fashion Week, and NY Premiere Vision. He has collaborated with brands such as Chanel, Petit Bateau, and Marimekko. In 2018, Tominaga joined the Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia – The Arts 2018 list.
