Last year, fashion conglomerate LVMH set up a prize system that would award emerging young designers with a hefty cash prize of around $340,000 to help advance their businesses. Last year's winner was Canadian designer Thomas Tait, while Hood By Air was one of the runners-up.
This year's list has just been revealed and you'll see a very wide spectrum of candidates for the 2015 prize. Don't worry, Public School can't win yet another award. The designers up for the prize this year are as far-reaching and diverse as possible. Amongst the candidates are NYC knit kings Orley, the luxury louchewear of Baja East and Virgil Abloh of Off-White. There's also bunch of other designers in that burgeoning "luxury sportswear" segment that has become the buzzword on everyone's lips these days, like Astrid Andersen and Nazir Mazhar, alongside the likes of Craig Green, Agi & Sam and VFILES show participants Ximon Lee and Andrea Jiapei Li. But back to Virgl. Whether you love or hate Off-White, dude really seems to be ingratiating himself with the fashion elite with the fucking quickness.
Possibly the biggest thing of note is the prevalence of menswear labels. There's a lot them in the running. So, yeah, good for us. The next step for the 26 contestants will be to present their collections in front of a bunch of intimidating fashion people like Cathy Horyn and Tim Blanks, from which 8 finalist will emerge. Then, it's time to take on the final bosses: Tisci, Raf, Lagerfeld, Phoebe Philo and Marc Jacobs. The LVMH Prize winner will be announced in May. Keep it locked.
