Everyone’s a Winner at Neiman Marcus Paris Bash
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PARIS — Nearly everyone remembers winning their first prize.
“It was for a Halloween mask at the Porterville Public Library,” Rick Owens beamed on Saturday at the Neiman Marcus Awards event at the Ritz hotel in Paris. “It was some kind of monster thing,” Owens deadpanned, noting he took home a pumpkin as his trophy.
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Theater boss Jordan Roth rocked a “swimathon” fundraising drive for leukemia when he was 10, collecting sponsors based on the number of laps. No one imagined he’d do more than two or three. “I swam 100 laps and I felt really proud, so I count that as a prize,” he beamed.
Olivia Palermo is another formidable athlete. “I won a lot of sports awards as a child,” she said, rattling off disciplines including lacrosse, ice hockey, figure skating, cross-country skiing and tennis. “I keep them all in my tack box.”
Dior’s Maria Grazia Chiuri, Schiaparelli’s Daniel Roseberry and Simon Porte Jacquemus were the recipients of this year’s Neiman Marcus Awards, for distinguished service, creative impact and innovation, respectively.
The American retailer hosted a lavish dinner party to celebrate its 2024 award winners, also inviting many of its brand partners to witness the ceremony, each of the three designers handed a bronze, Giacometti-esque trophy of an outstretched, ebullient figure.
Roseberry’s father David flipped through the camera roll on his phone and flashed an image of his designing son in a similar pose to the trophy as he dove into a lake in Maine, a favorite summertime spot for the Texas-born designer.
Chiuri could not recall winning a single prize as a child, probably because she never entered the fray. “I don’t like to participate in competitions,” she shrugged. “This is one aspect of my character.”
Jacquemus said his first prize was probably for ballet, while Roseberry took home a medal when he was in the fourth grade. “I won an animation competition by doing a project about ‘Pocahontas’ the movie. My mom helped me,” he said, noting that the medal was plastic. “But it was nice.”
Anh Duong, Sidney Toledano, Diego Della Valle, Albert Kriemler and Christian Louboutin executive Alexis Mourot were among notable attendees.
Geoffroy van Raemdonck, chief executive officer of the Neiman Marcus Group, noted that its awards nurture connections and conversations between designers and various brand partners, hinting that a collaboration is in the works from two creatives who met at last year’s prize event.
Meanwhile, its three 2024 winners will gain access to the “power of the merchandising and marketing team at Neiman Marcus. There’s going to be activations throughout the whole year, where each honoree has the ability to create something special for the American customer,” he said.
Asked about his first notable award, the retail boss mentioned winning a speech prize when he was a high-school student in Brussels.
Meanwhile, Lana Todorovich, chief merchandising officer at Neiman Marcus Group, said her earliest memory of receiving an award is when her fifth grade soccer team won a tournament.
Launch Gallery: Inside Neiman Marcus Awards Ceremony in Paris
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