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The LVMH Prize semi-final is held in a building on the grandest shopping street in all of Paris: Avenue Montaigne. This means that, as they arrive with their collections, each year’s 20-strong crop of hopefuls must pass not only Christian Dior’s original ateliers at number 30 but also towering flagship stores from apex brands, including Louis Vuitton, Loewe, Fendi, Celine and many other fierce commercial rivals in luxury fashion. Mustn’t that be overwhelming?
Thursday, on the first afternoon of 2024’s semi-final, we asked the prize’s founder (and Dior CEO) Delphine Arnault just that question. She answers with an example: “You know, the very first year of the prize, [Simon Porte] Jacquemus was here at this stage. In the end, he didn’t win. But he came back the next year, and won what we used to call the Special Prize, and then became the Karl Lagerfeld Prize. That was 2015.”
She continues: “At the beginning, his brand was really small, but he developed it. And today, he has his own shop on Avenue Montaigne.”
The two-day semi-final is a key stage in the LVMH Prize process and its most social moment. According to Arnault, it is especially crucial because it is the first time the candidates interact in person with the many people involved in deciding the prize. “This is when we see their personality, how they speak, and their passion for the brand — their vision,” she says.
This year, the prize received some 2,500 digital applications. These were whittled down to 20 candidates, of whom this year three were born in the US and the other 17 from different countries around the world. During Thursday and Friday, they stood patiently by their rails as members of the 85-strong expert committee toured the presentation to see their collections and ask them questions. On Thursday night, there was a cocktail event even as the intelligence gathering continued: then, as each committee member left, they handed in their vote for the designer they would most like to see in the final eight-candidate cut.
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Alongside the €400,000 main prize and €200,000 Karl Lagerfeld prize being presented at the final ceremony to be held at the Fondation Louis Vuitton in the summer, there is also a new award this year, named the Savoir-Faire prize, that will grant €200,000 and a year’s mentoring program to a designer exhibiting exceptional craftsmanship, technical expertise, or sustainability practice.
The first consideration for the experts deciding who will go through to the final stage is always the strength of the collections that each candidate shows on their rail, plus one model or mannequin. That’s why there is much chatter about the “hanger appeal” of the collections at this stage; but there are other factors at play, too. When asked how important personality and presentation skills are, Arnault replies: “Extremely. You have to communicate your brand more than ever before because with this [she indicates her phone] you can do miracles.” As for what the experts look for when considering the collections, she says, “We consider the uniqueness of the product, and whether that product can find an audience.”
The final stage is judged by a panel led by Arnault and LVMH colleague Jean-Paul Claverie, alongside group designers including Nicolas Ghesquière, Stella McCartney, Jonathan Anderson, Nigo and Maria Grazia Chiuri (among others). This year, a new name is joining their ranks: Louis Vuitton Men’s creative director Pharrell Williams.
“I’m often super impressed to see the final candidates on that day of judging. I always think that to be standing in front of so many great designers in the jury it must be a little scary. But the finalists seem so strong, confident and passionate,” says Arnault.
The semi-final is a route to that moment that only eight of the 20 young brands here will get to travel. However, Arnault adds: “To be able to come here today and tomorrow and meet nearly everyone in the industry is a unique opportunity, even if you don’t progress to the final.”
It is always possible to apply for a second time, just as two of this year’s semi-finalists have (Duran Lantink and Niccolò Pasqualetti) — as did Jacquemus. Below are this year’s semi-finalist brands, listed in alphabetical order.
Agbobly by Jacques Agbobly (Togo)
Jacques Agbobly emigrated from Togo to the US aged nine (along with two of his siblings), thanks to his mother Afi. She had come to America years earlier, and worked braiding hair to earn enough money to allow her children to follow. Agbobly’s brand reflects his experience as a first-generation African-American in very personal ways: a full-armed white jacket is ruched at its back as he remembers Afi’s crumpled jacket the day she collected him at Chicago’s O’Hare airport. “That day felt like the first time I got to know my mom, because she’d left when I was so young.” Playing workwear and Western tropes of America against the colour and knitwear tradition of his birth country, Agbobly is about taking up space and questions of place. It looked at home here.
Aubero by Julian Louie (US)
The first of three US-born designers in the line-up, Julian Louie hails from Northern California. “That really kind of inflicts the stylistic attitude and gesture of the collection,” he says of his roots. His collection plays on a contrast of delicacy in fabrication against the toughness of menswear silhouette, and grew out of Louie’s work and research at a vintage archive in the Arizona desert. Dupioni silk, lace and scraps of precious fabric are worked into pieces that sometimes include patchwork portraits or figurative windows into the human form beneath the garment. You get the sense that this brand is engaged in a subtle and therapeutic reconsideration of the layers that encase conventional tropes of masculinity through the creation of clothes that upend those stereotypes. Of this crazy, multiple speed-dating semi-final process, Louie says: “So far it’s been a total thrill.”
Campillo by Patricio Campillo (Mexico)
When Patricio Campillo’s grandfather handed him down an orange suede charro suit that had originally been used by his glamorous, unmarried, hard-drinking great uncle, it fired Campillo’s creative imagination in more ways than one: “You know, I think charro suits are very sexy. There’s an erotic aspect to it.” That bequest is the basis of his eponymous line. The toughness of leathers is reproduced in delicate oxidised suits to create garments that echo the decorative butchness of the source material, while inflecting them with tenderness. Tooled leathers and decorative metal hardware are also part of Campillo’s lexicon. Fantasy and heritage intermingle in a culturally specific menswear collection that you can see travelling successfully beyond its homeland.
Chiahung Su by Chia Hung Su (Taiwan)
A London College of Fashion graduate, Chia Hung Su has combined his expertise in tailoring with a desire to shine a light on the material expertise of his homeland. He employs 15 expert weavers and dyers versed in the traditions of the indigenous Atayal people. Using locally raised linens and other raw materials, this entirely vertical line is hand-woven and dyed before being tailored into Su’s romantically vagabond tailoring. Less romantically (but no less importantly), the prices are extremely competitive — and even if you had no knowledge or interest in the origin story of this collection, it would be attractive both on the rail and on the body. “I want to encourage this precious form of craftsmanship to take its place in the fashion system and not just stay in a museum,” says Su. Deep savoir-faire from the Formosa cultural tradition, combined with passionate entrepreneurialism, makes Chiahung Su one to watch.
Duran Lantink by Duran Lantink (Netherlands)
Duran Lantink has been developing his métier since he was 12, and is one of the best-known designers in the semi-final line-up; his collection is already on the Paris schedule and shows on Sunday afternoon. The creator of Janelle Monáe’s “vagina pants” back in 2018 was also the standout exhibitor in 2019’s International Fashion Showcase in London. Five years on, he has developed his working practice to allow his upcycled garments to be altered in tandem with the tastes of the customer who purchases them — you can hit an “alteration button” on Lantink’s website to have your purchase refashioned to your specifications. Irony entwines with urgently necessary environmental practice in the collection of a returning LVMH Prize contender. He has to be among the favourites to progress to the final this year.
Elena Velez by Elena Velez (US)
The next US-born semi-finalist this year hails from Milwaukee, Wisconsin: “A space in the American cultural landscape that’s not really being spoken to right now,” says Elena Velez of her hometown. The Parsons and Central Saint Martins-trained designer works to fashion powerful female protagonists through hand-hewn clothing fabricated from materials like parachute fabrics and upcycled sailcloth. Other materials include metal — reflecting her rust-belt origins — and raw silks, linens and cottons. Velez says her sensibility emerged from the “bleak, industrial gritty, heavy metal spaces” in which she was raised; there is an uncompromising romanticism in the work. Body-framing pieces surfaced with a rippling, sheeny silicone latex treatment reflect the watery vistas of the designer’s upbringing — her mother worked as a ship’s captain on the Great Lakes — as well as her siren intent to project a unique and specific voice in the fashion space.
Fidan Novruzova by Fidan Novruzova (Moldova)
The Moldovan capital of Chișinău is not yet on fashion’s map as a centre of manufacturing excellence, but Fidan Novruzova intends to change that one multi-clasp bag at a time. Launched in 2020, her impressively developed namesake label has already developed some highly identifiable core products, including those surrealistic bags and her trompe l’oeil square-toe Trouser Boots. Her rail was hung with wittily fashioned subversive “sportswear”, some really interesting and commercially attractive intersections between the pique polo and tuxedo dressing, plus some clever recontextualisations of the bow tie and necktie inserted into upended eveningwear. Playing against these straight-up mash-ups were some more subtle interrogations of convention: genteel checked dresses and tops edged with ruffle, or faux fur transmitting a low-key Raisa Gorbachev energy. “This is not from a moodboard, it’s from lived experience,” says Novruzova of a collection that is all made by small family-run factories in the city that is also the source of her inspiration.
Hodakova by Ellen Hodakova Larsson (Sweden)
“I believe that this is definitely the extension of trying to surprise yourself with what you can do with things that nobody likes anymore.” In the contemporary fashion climate, emerging brands that create new products from upcycled materials are nothing new (because imagine the irony in that); however, Ellen Hodakova Larsson’s intensity of approach and technique sets her interestingly apart. Belts, menswear trouser hems, bras, spoons and thousands of hand-applied pins were among the once-discarded raw ingredients reincarnated as striking womenswear pieces on Larsson’s rail. The designer, who wore an argyle sweater that looked like a collaboration with knitwear specialist Wolsey, is engaged in a process that generates tingles of ASMR satisfaction in order to achieve environmental self-enlightenment through purposeful repetition.
Jiyongkim by Jiyong Kim (South Korea)
Jiyong Kim’s handsome clothes are the by-product of a process that is activated by the elements. By hanging his fabrics on chicken wire fencing at his base in Seoul, and then leaving them there, he invites nature to participate in their patterning. Over time they gain a bleached, irregular patina from long exposure to the sun. The fabrics acquire contours of light and dark — an organically generated chiaroscuro — that is only gently curated via the manner in which the designer chooses to fold his fabrics before placing them. “I wanted to make something new through a process that is freely available, and emphasise the beauty of what some might see as discoloration.” This process combines poetry with progressive environmental practice to create pieces that explore our relationship to the surface.
Karoline Vitto by Karoline Vitto (Brazil)
London-based Brazilian Karoline Vitto dedicates her entire body of work to luxury fashion’s greatest unexplored consumer base: so-called “plus-size” women. Her designs are offered up to UK size 28 (US24), and she approaches her collections in an unapologetically body-positive manner. So-called plus-size clothing often comes embedded with social stigma, but Vitto’s mission is to upend that negative norm. Her designs, which have been shown as part of Fashion East in London and during Milan Fashion Week, hand their wearers the agency and power to define their own physical image with assertiveness and vivacity. Vitto also considers more than her core mission: new pieces on her rail are crafted from upcycled stretch jersey because, “we’re working to find a way to align sustainability with body diversity — there is so much elastane in curve garments and this is a problem we are looking to solve.” As both a designer and entrepreneur, Vitto seems an outstandingly deserving candidate for further consideration.
Khoki (Japan)
Khoki is a collective of six designers based in Tokyo, led by Koki Abe. They all graduated from the same school, Tokyo Mode Gakuen. They create menswear using the codes of American quilting and patchwork and using Japanese fabrics and techniques. They presented Tat the showroom a playful dragon-shaped handbag and elf ears. What’s their dream? “Paris,” Abe says. “Continuing to showcase in Paris and have a fashion show here at some point, and get success as a team.”
Marie Adam-Leenaerdt by Marie Adam-Leenaerdt (Belgium)
Marie Adam-Leenaerdt graduated from La Cambre in Brussels in 2020 and worked for Balenciaga before launching her label in 2023. Her womenswear show on day one of Paris Fashion Week (her second season on the official calendar) received rave reviews. She played with the skirt’s versatility this season. “It’s a full statement collection. It’s got bags, shoes, a complete wardrobe, you don’t often see from a young designer,” says Julie Gilhart, president of Tomorrow Consulting (she joined the LVMH Prize panel of experts in 2014). The brand is already available in 15 stores, including Bergdorf Goodman, Dover Street Market and Net-a-Porter, and there’s probably many more to come following a busy showroom this week. The boots with zips that can be worn to the knee or to the ankle are bound to sell out.
Niccolò Pasqualetti by Niccolò Pasqualetti (Italy)
Italian designer Niccolò Pasqualetti worked as a women’s ready-to-wear designer at Loewe before launching his genderless brand for SS22. The designer lives between Tuscany and Paris, and the brand is entirely based on Italian craftsmanship. The pieces are made to last, ranging from €190 tank tops to €5,000 coats. Everything is genderless? “Yes, but we don’t like to use it as marketing,” Pasqualetti says. On the AW24 collection shown this week on the Paris calendar, Pasqualetti explains: “The idea was to travel in time with futuristic touches.” Hence the classic materials like tweed, fake fur and pearls. “It shone,” wrote Vogue Runway’s Sarah Mower about the show. Pasqualetti was a semi-finalist of the LVMH Prize in 2022. “It’s obvious that he has been working hard at developing a collection that became much more cohesive in all categories. It felt right to bring Niccolò back to the prize,” says Gilhart. The brand is available in 46 stores worldwide including Dover Street Market.
Paolo Carzana by Paolo Carzana (UK)
Paolo Carzana constructs and dyes his collections from his studio in London. His dyes are derived from plants. “I made this collection in five weeks,” he says in the LVMH Prize showroom. “This is aloe vera fibre, this is eucalyptus fibre and this is flax seed. Everything I work with is organic, deadstock or antique and I dye everything naturally myself.” Carzana has already caught the industry’s attention: “This young Welsh visionary creates and plant dyes clothes by hand and speaks of them almost like William Blake,” wrote Vogue Runway’s Sarah Mower in her review of his AW24 show at London Fashion Week. “Many important eyes are already on him.” That includes The Costume Institute, which invited Carzana to create an outfit for its upcoming exhibition.
Pauline Dujancourt by Pauline Dujancourt (France)
Pauline Dujancourt studied at École Duperré in Paris, worked at Phoebe English, Simone Rocha in London and Alexander Wang in New York, then returned to London and decided to apply to Central Saint Martins. She graduated in 2022, and the day after the CSM graduate show, she was approached by buyers, which gave her the impetus to create her womenswear brand. She has a signature: crochet pieces mixed with silk for a little lightness. For knitwear and crochet production, she works with a group of women based in Lima, Peru. “My dream is to always be able to continue to support more female artisans,” she says. She already picked up accounts such as Dover Street Market in New York, Los Angeles, Ginza and Paris, which is slated to open in the Spring.
Ponder.er by Alex Po and Derek Cheng (China)
Hong Kong-based duo Alex Po and Derek Cheng are carving out a name for themselves by rethinking masculinity through creations that they describe as non-binary. Their signature is to play with fabrics like denim and create a different texture. “A lot of our pieces are inspired by everyday pieces that you can see in everyone’s wardrobe — denim shirt, denim jeans, classic white shirt — but we use our techniques to make really fluid pieces. For example, this white shirt is based on a classic, conventional white shirt pattern, but by using this diamond-shaped smoking, it becomes something new and for all kinds of gender and sizes,” Cheng says. The brand caught the attention of Yu Prize judges in 2022, securing the grand prize. It is also popular with a growing number of K-pop and Chinese celebrities.
Standing Ground by Michael Stewart (Ireland)
The fabric and construction of Michael Stewart’s eveningwear is exquisite. He calls them “soft sculptures”. It feels like couture — and he wants to develop his custom business. “I do love to work with clients. It’s a sustainable and gentle way to scale,” he says. What if he wins the LVMH Prize? “I will put the money into the work. I don’t want to lose the money on a show that costs £100,000. I want to continue developing techniques that I couldn’t afford before.”
Vautrait by Yonathan Carmel (Israel)
Yonathan Carmel studied philosophy before creating his womenswear brand in 2021. “They should teach philosophy in fashion schools. It helps you to think,” says the Tel Aviv-based designer, whose favourite philosopher is Jacques Derida. There’s no denying that his creations are thoughtful. He mixes draping, extreme tailoring and craft.
Who Decides War by Everard Best (US)
Everard Best launched his menswear denim brand under the name Ev Bravado in 2015, before renaming it in 2019 to Who Decides War. Best met his partner Téla D’Amore when he was looking for a womenswear designer. “He didn’t need a womenswear designer, [but] he did need structure. So I came in and offered that structure,” D’Amore explains. They’re now eight seasons in and are expanding the women’s collection season after season. They showed three times under the CFDA calendar (including a chaotic SS24 show), and plan to be on the men’s schedule in Paris this June. The brand is sold in around 40 points of sale, including Saks Fifth Avenue, The Webster and Ssense. “It’s an energised brand that is igniting a community of followers, not just in New York but around the world,” Gilhart says.
Ya Yi by Yayi Chen Zhou (Spain)
Yayi Chen Zhou was born in Spain and studied at Parsons School of Design in New York, before working at The Row and Thom Browne. Now, based in Shanghai, she describes her work as “multicultural and poetic”. That’s undeniable: she takes codes from Spanish traditional techniques and the use of the colour, and mixes it with the delicacy of Asian craftwork. “Her sense of artistry and commerciality makes you well-rounded,” Gilhart says.
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Duran Lantink, Who Decides War and Karoline Vitto among the 2024 LVMH Prize semifinalists