EXCLUSIVE: Saint Laurent’s Anthony Vaccarello to Mentor ANDAM Winners

Joelle Diderich
·3 min read
  • Oops!
    Something went wrong.
    Please try again later.
  • Oops!
    Something went wrong.
    Please try again later.

PARIS — To mark its 35th anniversary, French fashion competition ANDAM has tapped former winner Anthony Vaccarello as mentor for its 2024 edition, marking the first time that a designer rather than an executive will be providing guidance to the winners.

Vaccarello won the award in 2011, going on to become creative director of Saint Laurent, one of the corporate sponsors of the award.

More from WWD

ANDAM founder and managing director Nathalie Dufour said Vaccarello will share his creative vision with the candidates, while honoring the roots of the organization, presided over by Yves Saint Laurent’s longtime business partner Pierre Bergé from its creation in 1989 until Bergé’s death in 2017.

“I think it’s lovely that he’s paying tribute to Pierre Bergé in this way,” she told WWD. “It will be very inspiring for this young generation, because Anthony is someone who embodies a totally exceptional career within a powerful French house.”

Vaccarello can count on the support of the many leading executives who make up the permanent jury of the award, but he will also select his own guest members. Saint Laurent chief executive officer Francesca Bellettini was the mentor of the 2017 edition.

Anthony Vaccarello
Anthony Vaccarello

“ANDAM is very important for Saint Laurent and myself. It was presided over by Monsieur Pierre Bergé from the first contest and for almost 30 years and I had the chance to be one of the prize winners. For those reasons, I am sincerely honored to join as president of the jury for this special anniversary edition,” the designer said in a statement.

“Today, as Saint Laurent creative director, I feel a duty to support emerging talents and new brands in fashion,” Vaccarello added.

Dufour said she was especially pleased as the designer rarely makes public appearances. The winner of the grand prize will receive 300,000 euros, and the runner-up 100,000 euros, and Vaccarello will mentor both for one year on both the creative and strategic dimensions of their business.

“It feels like a great gift for this 35th anniversary, and I’m very honored and touched to have Anthony in person as mentor,” she said. “He’s mature and has a very cross-disciplinary and global vision both in terms of creative direction and operational development.”

Nathalie Dufour
Nathalie Dufour

She noted that in addition to helping to steer the Kering-owned Saint Laurent brand through a period of exponential growth since his arrival in 2016, Vaccarello previously headed his own label. The notoriously acerbic Bergé praised his first collection for Saint Laurent.

“Oscillating between heritage and vision, we could not imagine a better president of the jury than Anthony Vaccarello, a visionary with proven talent and a former winner himself,” ANDAM president Guillaume Houzé said in a statement.

While the total endowment for the prize will remain stable this year at 700,000 euros, ANDAM plans a series of events to mark the anniversary. “All throughout the year, there will be pop-ups, collaborations and events designed to highlight our heritage of designers,” Dufour said.

Past winners include Viktor & Rolf, Christophe Lemaire, Jeremy Scott and Marine Serre. French designer Louis-Gabriel Nouchi scooped the 2023 prize, with Ester Manas and Duran Lantink both receiving the runner-up Special Prize.

ANDAM — the French acronym for National Association of the Development of the Fashion Arts — is supported by large corporate sponsors, which now include Balenciaga, Bureau Betak, Chanel, Chloé, Fondation Pierre Bergé-Yves Saint Laurent, Galeries Lafayette, Google, Hermès, Kering, Lacoste, Longchamp, LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, L’Oréal Paris, Meta, Mytheresa, OTB, Premiere Classe, Saint Laurent, Swarovski and Tomorrow.

The French Ministry of Culture and the DEFI, a body that promotes the development of the French fashion industry, are also key historic public partners of ANDAM.

Best of WWD