ANDAM Just Announced Its 2018 Finalists; Find Out Who Made the List

ANDAM Just Announced Its 2018 Finalists; Find Out Who Made the List

The ANDAM Prize is a reminder that June is some month to be a designer. The CFDA Awards take place on June 4. The winner of the LVMH Prize gets announced on June 6. And the countdown will have started for the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund, which celebrates its 15th anniversary this year.

Right at the end of the month, on June 29, the recipients of ANDAM will be announced in Paris. There are four awards: The ANDAM Fashion Award, of €250,000; The Creative Label Prize, of €100,000; the Accessories Prize, of €30,000; and the Fashion Innovation Prize, of €25,000. The recipients are selected after a day of intense grilling from the likes of such industry insiders as Francesca Bellettini, president and CEO of Saint Laurent; Geoffroy de la Bourdonnaye, the president of Chloé; and Natalie Kingham, fashion and buying Director of MatchesFashion.com. Joining them on the jury will be, among others, Marc Goehring, fashion director of 032c, and the model and producer Caroline de Maigret. (Actually, truth be told, having sat on the 2016 jury, it’s a fun afternoon of friendly arguments and impassioned takes on the winners, though this might not be much consolation to the finalists when they’re up there, doing their thing.)

Presiding over the day is Natalie Dufour, the founder and managing director of ANDAM, which is celebrating its 29th year of promoting new talent. The prize has a good track record of sniffing out stars. In the past, it has honored Martin Margiela, Anthony Vaccarello and last year Y/Project, headed by Glenn Martens. So, with a drumroll and a swish of the cymbals, here’s who made it to the 2018 final—and congratulations to every one of them.

ANDAM Fashion Award

A Cold Wall Atlein
Cecilie Bahnsen
Facetasm Eckhaus Latta

The Creative Label Prize

Afterhomework
Kevin Germanier
Ludovic de Saint-Sernin
Neith Nyer

The Accessories Prize

D'heygere PB 0110
Worn Official

Fashion Innovation Prize

Colorfix
Daco
Tekyn

You’ll have noticed that these aren’t just French labels; there are designers from Tokyo (Facetasm), Copenhagen (Cecilie Bahnsen), and, of course, the U.S. (Eckhaus Latta). “It is more international, this selection,” Dufour says. “If they win, they have to come show in Paris, so the question is, are they ready to show here? What will they do with French savoir faire?” For all the talk of fashion as a global business, and the eruption of Fashion Weeks all over the world, it still means a lot to show in the French capital, with its deep ties to the haute couture system and luxury houses. Yet Paris has another resonance these days. With Europe being transformed, it has emerged as a younger, groovier city than in years go by, cracking with a new energy. And the same is true of many of the designers up for this year’s awards. “They have a political viewpoint, a sense of social engagement,” Dufour says. “A lot of designers are thinking now about what kind of world they want, and how they should propose that in their clothes. It’s a new generation.”