Thebe Magugu Wins the 2019 LVMH Prize
Thebe Magugu, the South African designer based in Johannesburg, has won this year’s LVMH Prize. The award comes with 300,000 euros and a year’s worth of mentoring from the group. Alicia Vikander, a face of Louis Vuitton, presented Magugu with the honor. “The talent in this room is quite simply stupefying, and the finalists represent the future of fashion.”
For two weeks now, those who follow fashion’s up-and-comers have been quietly snapping up pieces by LVMH Prize finalists on 24S, the e-commerce site of France’s Le Bon Marché department store, allowing the first-time finalists to get a head start on such an international showcase. This is why, at the 24S fête hosted at Lapérouse last night, Thebe Magugu felt validated just seeing the DJ wearing his blouse (she wasn’t the only one, either). It was pretty enjoyable stuff for a first trip to Paris—plus the Johannesburg-based womenswear designer just turned 26 last Sunday, making him the youngest of this year’s finalists in addition to being the first talent from Africa to land in the finals.
“It’s a lot of firsts,” Magugu allowed, noting that while he had long followed the Prize on Instagram, he almost put off his application until next year.
“As a creative you’re always questioning yourself, but people around me told me there was no harm trying. I went into it like a child, and got the chance to speak to my design heroes like Clare Waight Keller and Nicolas Ghesquière. So no matter the outcome, I already felt like I’d won so many things.” Nodding to his trophy, he added, “This is like the cherry on top.”
Said Delphine Arnault, the executive vice president of Louis Vuitton and the founder of the LVMH Prize, “The creativity of his designs is great—the colors, the cuts, it’s very feminine. We saw the talent, and we also saw the challenges—in export for example. It’s great to find talent with a huge potential.” This year, more than 1,700 candidatures flowed in from 100 countries.
In addition to his 300,000-euro winnings, Magugu will receive one year of business mentoring from LVMH. But that doesn’t mean he will be uprooting himself to Paris—quite the contrary.
“My overarching mission as a designer is to showcase a contemporary South Africa,” he said. “So many people have stale ideas of what that means and I really want to change that. There are so many creatives doing incredible work in South Africa. I’m looking forward to traveling but I really want to stay there because it feeds my own creativity.”
In another fashion milestone, the Tel Aviv–based designer Hed Mayner claimed the first-ever Karl Lagerfeld Prize—150,000 euros plus a year of mentoring—for his crossover-friendly menswear. “It feels like an illusion, a bit,” Mayner offered. “This support means less isolation, so the team can focus on creativity.”
Lagerfeld’s absence loomed large inside the Fondation Louis Vuitton. “Karl was really part of the Prize since day one; he put all of his energy, goodwill, and kindness into it,” noted Arnault. “He would always show up to see everyone’s work and encourage them even if he had his own show two days later. He would make jokes on the jury and he had huge culture, he knew all the references. We miss him a lot. Fashion misses him a lot. The Prize won’t be the same without him.”
Three fashion students were also recognized with winnings of 10,000 euros each and internships in LVMH houses: Alice Paris, a graduate of the Accademia Costume and Moda in Rome; Daisy Yu, a graduate of Central Saint Martins; and Juliette Tréhorel, of the Atelier Chardon Savard will spend the next year working at Givenchy, Louis Vuitton, and Christian Dior, respectively.
Meanwhile, the seventh edition of the LVMH Prize will open for applications later this fall; the winners will be announced June 2020.
Originally Appeared on Vogue
