Among the eight young talents, finalists for the LVMH Prize, are perhaps the next Demna (artistic director of Balenciaga), the future Simon Porte Jacquemus or even the spiritual son of Virgil Abloh (who passed away in November 2021).
These three stars of the scene participated (and not always won) in this competition created in 2013. In less than a decade, this prize launched by Delphine Arnault has become essential, considered as one of the most powerful career accelerators in the sector. .
Especially since it reaches an endowment of €300,000 for the grand prize and €150,000 for the Karl Lagerfeld prize.
Who are the lucky winners of this 9th edition?
The Korean Ashlynn Park of the Ashlyn brand, the American Eli Russell Linnetz of ERL, her compatriot Idris Balagun of Winnie New York,
the British-Canadian duo of Charlotte Knowles and Alexandre Arsenault of Knwls, the Irish Roisin Pierce, the Japanese Ryunosuke Okazaki, the British Steven Stokey Daley of SS Daley and the Nigerian Iniyé Tokyo James of Tokyo James.
What should we take away from this edition?
Interview with Delphine Arnault.
Read alsoThe LVMH Prize announces its semi-finalists
Le Figaro. - In February, you opened an online platform to allow the general public to vote for the eight finalists. What is the balance sheet
Delphine Arnault.
-
Great!
For this ninth edition, more than 62,000 people
(compared to 32,000 last year, editor's note)
connected to our digital platform and voted for their favorite candidate.
It is a huge success that testifies to the influence of the LVMH Prize.
We can only be sensitive to the work, the talent, the aesthetic universe and the passion of these young creators from all over the world.
We are happy that these values, which we have upheld since the launch of the competition in 2013, are now meeting with such wide resonance.
Each edition has revealed talents who are now at the head of big houses or who have developed their own brand. Maximilian Davis, semi-finalist this year, is already artistic director of Ferragamo.
We see it year after year, the prize plays a major role today in helping to bring out the talents of tomorrow.
It is a source of great pride for me and for all those who have helped to make this award a success.
In 2021, the late Virgil Abloh wanted to encourage all the
"
losers
"
so that they realize that they too had won... Is the sounding board of this competition worth the victory?
Virgil's vision, his talent, his listening skills and his intelligence were extraordinary and will be greatly missed by the competition, the members of the jury and myself.
He then underlined a very fair element: he himself had been a finalist in 2015, had not won but then had the career that we know.
Alas, terribly too short.
Many former candidates have made a success of their talent, whether they were winners or not.
The greatest success of this competition is that everyone finds their way and their way of expressing themselves.
The prize will celebrate its tenth anniversary next year. It has always been crossed by the concerns of the time, sustainable development, diversity, the rise of digital, the Covid crisis... What is the particularity of this class of 2022?
The commitment of all the candidates on all these issues struck me during the semi-final.
They place ecological and ethical concerns at the center of their approach, question the social and environmental responsibility of their brands, by thinking about
sourcing
, working on "clean" materials, with local know-how... And then, and above all, they all have incredible talent, and that's what counts!
What does dialogue with these young designers bring you, personally and at the level of the LVMH group, each year?
Each moment of exchange with a candidate is of great richness.
Through their talent, their creativity, their maturity, they nourish my work and my thinking.
Contributing to helping young designers in their development was the raison d'être of the LVMH Prize.
This is an essential value that we all carry within the group.
