The LVMH Prize Is Turning 10 — and Open for Applications
On your marks, get set — apply!
Starting Thursday, young designers can thrown their names into the ring for the LVMH Prize, which has helped propel the careers of such talents as Marine Serre, Nensi Dojaka, Thebe Magugu, Simon Porte Jacquemus and Grace Wales Bonner.
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The 2023 competition marks the 10th edition of the annual design prize and designers have until Jan. 29 to submit their applications to LVMHprize.com.
To qualify, designers must be between the ages of 18 and 40 and have at least two commercialized womenswear, menswear or genderless collections under their belt.
The victor of the LVMH Prize for Young Fashion Designers receives a 300,000-euro endowment and mentorship by LVMH teams in such areas as sustainability, communications, marketing, legal, production and finance.
The winner of the Karl Lagerfeld Prize receives a 150,000-euro allocation plus one year of mentorship from LVMH experts.
Both winners will also receive specific mentoring on environmental issues and receive an allowance — 20,000 euros and 10,000 euros, respectively, for the grand and runner-up prizes — on the Nona Source platform, which gathers deadstock materials from LVMH’s fashion and leather goods houses.
“Ten years after its creation, the LVMH Prize has become a benchmark, a key player in nurturing young designers,” said Delphine Arnault, Louis Vuitton’s executive vice president and a key talent scout for the group, who initiated the prize in 2013.
She noted that the prize has evolved over the years, and “reflects the developments and trends that drive fashion and, more broadly speaking, society.”
“Many influential young designers have taken part in it over the last 10 years, which shows the role the prize plays in talent spotting,” she added.
Other past winners of main, runner-up and special prizes include Hood by Air, Rokh, Doublet, KidSuper, Marques’Almeida and Hed Mayner.
Semifinalists are to be chosen by an LVMH selection committee and revealed in due course.
These contenders — there were 20 for the 2022 edition — are to display their work on March 2 and 3 during Paris Fashion Week at a dedicated showroom and meet with the experts.
The 2023 semifinalists will also be featured on the prize website and social channels from March 2. That “will be an opportunity for the public and the experts to discover and select the competing designers.” This year once again, the general public will also be able to vote for their favorite candidate.
The prize distinguishes three young fashion school graduates. Each will receive 10,000 euros and join the studios of three houses of the LVMH group for one year.
The jury that selects the winners is stacked with LVMH fashion stars. Past editions have included Maria Grazia Chiuri, Stella McCartney, Nigo, Silvia Venturini Fendi, Marc Jacobs, Nicolas Ghesquière, Kim Jones, Jonathan Anderson and the late Virgil Abloh, as well as LVMH executives Sidney Toledano, chairman and chief executive officer of LVMH Fashion Group; Jean-Paul Claverie, an adviser to Bernard Arnault and head of corporate philanthropy at LVMH, and Delphine Arnault.
LVMH also plans to recognize fashion-school graduates, who can apply until March 19.
The 2022 competition attracted some 1,900 applicants and the winner was British designer Steven Stokey-Daley, whose theatrical shows at London Fashion Week have explored the British class system through a queer lens.
There were two winners of the Karl Lagerfeld Prize last year: ERL by Eli Russell Linnetz and Winnie New York, designed by Nigerian-born, London-raised designer Idris Balogun.
