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Meet the Next Big Thing in Fashion

Fashionista caught up with the 22 designers competing for the prestigious 2023 LVMH Prize.

Over the last 10 years, the LVMH Prize for Young Fashion Designers has reshaped the industry by introducing the world to some of the most influential creatives working today. It’s not just the winners who benefit, either. (Though, of course, the success of Marine Serre, Grace Wales Bonner, Thebe Magugu and many others can’t be understated.) Just being nominated is a major achievement for an emerging brand, bringing a global spotlight to their business. 

There were over 2,400 applications submitted for the 2023 LVMH Prize, with 22 brands making the short list as semi-finalists back in February. They all presented their work at a group showroom during Paris Fashion Week to the International Committee of Experts of the LVMH Prize. These judges will then narrow down the pool even more, to just eight finalists, before crowing the winner of the big €300,000 (plus year-long mentorship) award. (You, too, can have your say, as part of a public vote happening on the LVMH Prize’s website through March 5.)

This year’s class includes Central Saint Martins grads (some from the same class!) and self-taught designers, up-and-comers on the verge of their big moment and already-beloved fashion fixtures. There are designers representing countries from Brazil to Jamaica, with brands working everywhere from the U.K. to Nigeria to China. Some are centering traditional craftsmanship in their practice, others are building totally new systems that could reshape the industry. 

Ahead, meet all 22 semi-finalists, and learn about their inspirations and the most consequential business decisions that helped them get here. 

Aaron Esh, United Kingdom

What has been the most important decision you’ve made since starting your business that helped you get here?
I got an order from Ssense a week after my MA show. All the fabric that I had made my MA collection with was from the bin at the Central Saint Martins scrap stuff. I had a decision to make: Where do I get everything graded? Where do I get my fabric from? How do I produce a collection for a real shop? And I had to be like, ‘Okay, I’m going to do this. This is who I am now.’ I delivered it in four months, and it’s done really well. 

What’s inspiring you about fashion right now?
There’s a shift in menswear of asking, ‘What is menswear?’ I think my work speaks to that subconsciously. 

Photo: Courtesy of LVMH Prize

Anne Isabella, France

What has been the most important decision you’ve made since starting your business that helped you get here?
I started taking part in Paris Fashion Week three seasons ago — that’s definitely helped because it brought the label to a next level and also created a different content base for it.

What does being a semi-finalist for the LVMH Prize mean to you as a designer
Obviously, it’s super nice to be able to take part and meet the other contestants. There are so many inspiring people here, and it feels like a safe space because everybody works in small teams and knows what it’s like, so I don’t feel like I’m a crazy person. We’ve met a lot of great experts and people that I wouldn’t have had the chance to meet otherwise, and that’s super special and really priceless.

Photo: Courtesy of LVMH Prize

Julie Pelipas, Bettter, Ukraine

What has been the most important decision you’ve made since starting your business that helped you get here?
To start this business. I was convincing myself for three years to launch — I knew that it was going to be a very complicated platform to build because it’s not a brand, it’s a system of upcycling, which is supposed to disrupt the system itself. The concept is to upcycle deadstock on an industrial scale, to actually upscale upcycling. The decision to take a risk was the most important decision to take. Another was to proceed doing this when the war in Ukraine started.

To come here to participate was, I think, a very important decision. It was a friend who encouraged me. I was like, ‘No, I don’t have my team now, they’re in Ukraine. I don’t have a studio.’ But then she was like, ‘Just apply.’ And I forgot completely that we applied; when I received the call from LVMH, I was crying because I didn’t have anything in a place — I didn’t have a collection, a team, a studio. My team encouraged me. They said, ‘We will make it.’ In three weeks, we actually rented apartments in Porto, moved my girls from Ukraine to Porto and created the whole collection.

Photo: Courtesy of LVMH Prize

Faith Oluwajimi, Bloke, Nigeria

What has been the most important decision you’ve made since starting your business that helped you get here?
Consistency. We’ve been consistent with our decisions about the brand being sustainable and being artisanal.

What does being a semi-finalist for the LVMH Prize mean to you as a designer?
It’s, in all essence of the word, an accomplishment. It’s also a pat on the back because I’m a self-taught designer. It’s the final straw that gives me that sense of, ‘I’m actually who I say I am.’ It also helps me believe more in my ideas, because if my ideas have brought us here, why not keep pushing and believing in them?

Photo: Courtesy of LVMH Prize

Burc Akyol, France

What has been the most important decision you’ve made since starting your business that helped you get here?
Maintaining what I started with: the idea of exceptional clothing made in exceptional fabrics, know-how and everything that I stand for in this business, which probably is going to lead to the success of it one day, because if you have your point of view straight and you’re doing everything you can in one direction, it’s perseverance, and I believe it takes you very far.

What’s inspiring you about fashion right now?
The fact that all of us young designers are so bubbly about the idea of creating…. The fact that we’re all here trying to do something, when there are so many big brands that we’re accustomed, is inspiring.

Photo: Courtesy of LVMH Prize

Charlie Constantinou, United Kingdom

What has been the most important decision you’ve made since starting your business that helped you get here?
Not pushing ourselves into having to stick to the traditional selling window of seasons… There was definitely a bit of struggle, where I think some stores are still fixed in that traditional calendar. But all the stores we work with have been super understanding.

What does being a semi-finalist for the LVMH Prize mean to you as a designer?
It’s super surreal because I remember when I started my fashion education, I grew watching the LVMH Prize. One of my tutors in BA was nominated while I was studying, and I just remember thinking that was such a far-away, impossible thing. Then, when I was in Paris for my second season showroom, LVMH came to see me and said, ‘You should consider applying.’ I really didn’t expect that to come out of the showroom. I was like, ‘Okay, if they’re telling me to apply, I guess I have to apply.’

Photo: Courtesy of LVMH Prize

Rachel Scott, Diotima, Jamaica

What has been the most important decision you’ve made since starting your business that helped you get here?
Really believing in Jamaican craft and sticking with that. Showing that it was of the level of luxury that deserves to be on the global stage.

What does being a semi-finalist for the LVMH Prize mean to you as a designer?
The experience in general is incredibly special, but it also is this level of validation that what I’m doing is something unique and worthy of being here.

What’s inspiring you about fashion right now?
How open it is. Seeing the multiplicity of voices even within the Prize, seeing the diversity within everyone’s approach is really exciting.

Photo: Courtesy of LVMH Prize

Joao Maraschin, Brazil

What has been the most important decision you’ve made since starting your business that helped you get here?
Nurturing the relationships I have with all of the artisans that I work with and amplifying their voices through craftsmanship, through the work we make in every single piece and the storytelling we embedded in every single garment.

What’s inspiring you about fashion right now?
What inspires me is all of this kindness, this shift towards collaborative work, through this very supportive environment that we’ve been more and more nurturing, and seeing it across every single aspect in the industry. I’m really, really thrilled for that.

Photo: Courtesy of LVMH Prize

Johanna Parv, Estonia

What has been the most important decision you’ve made since starting your business that helped you get here?
That I started my brand as a young designer. There’s a point where you have a lot of opportunities elsewhere, for full-time or freelance jobs — but to say, ‘Okay, I’m now fully doing my own thing, and everything that I do is going to be invested into my business,’ is a decision.

What does being a semi-finalist for the LVMH Prize mean to you as a designer?
It feels amazing. It feels so good. At the same time, it feels somehow natural, because you work so hard on your stuff and you’re in that circle — most of people here are my peers from university or the showrooms. 

What’s inspiring you about fashion right now?
Longevity inspires me. I’m glad when I see that people aren’t offering new things every season, when they take time to create beautiful products and really develop them.

Photo: Courtesy of LVMH Prize

Juntae Kim, South Korea

What has been the most important decision you’ve made since starting your business that helped you get here?
My vision was to introduce European customs, history, culture and references to Asian people. I want to build bridges to connect Asian people with European and American people with my brand.

What’s inspiring you about fashion right now?
I normally get inspiration from very old, historical stuff. Normally, the fashion industry passes so quickly, so I want to go slow and focus on historical, traditional things to introduce the new.

Photo: Courtesy of LVMH Prize

Kartik Kumra, Karu Research, India

What has been the most important decision you’ve made since starting your business that helped you get here?
Just going and actually doing it. I was back home from college over the pandemic and started to drive around different artisanal textile areas around India. Everything is handmade in India, working with craftspeople. There’s no electricity required in any of the fabric production. To invest in that narrative took a lot of effort and a lot of, like, convincing my Asian parents that this is a worthwhile life.

What’s inspiring you about fashion right now?
That people are really open to listening to new stories. That’s where we found our moderate amount of success, where buyers and stores were looking post-pandemic for interesting stories from diverse places that really hadn’t been told before. That’s where I come in.

Photo: Courtesy of LVMH Prize

Giseok Cho, Kusikohc, South Korea

What has been the most important decision you’ve made since starting your business that helped you get here?
Starting the brand.

What’s inspiring you about fashion right now?
These days, I’m inspired more from movies — I make a character and a persona, and I want to find what that person is wearing.

Photo: Courtesy of LVMH Prize

Louis Shengtao Chen, China

What has been the most important decision you’ve made since starting your business that helped you get here?
Remaining creative. When I started back into 2021, it was not a very easy moment. It was very difficult with Covid, because you make things, but there’s no audience, and there are very limited resources and factories. But I think that insistence on always being creative and speaking the same language into the category is important.

What’s inspiring you about fashion right now?
The young generations, the kids… I like to observe them, what they wear and wear they go. People get dressed up. When I was a student at Central Saint Martins, we would dress up for no reason — to go to the club, to go to lunch at the canteen. It’s an attitude, and I think that attitude really matters.

Photo: Courtesy of LVMH Prize

Raul Lopez, Luar, United States

What has been the most important decision you’ve made since starting your business that helped you get here?
Letting others be able to wear the hats. Having a team. When you’re an artist, you’re scared to trust other people with your art. 

What does being a semi-finalist for the LVMH Prize mean to you as a designer?
It’s such an honor. I’m not trained. I wasn’t allowed to go to fashion school. I couldn’t afford it. To be this kid who comes from the hood in Brooklyn to actually be appreciated and represented through my talent here and really showcasing my work validates not only to me, but to family who probably just wanted me to be a doctor or a cop or whatever blue or white collar [job].

What’s inspiring you about fashion right now?
With fashion, I’m going in a different direction. I know how to do crazy silhouettes — I come from Hood by Air, I have 10+ years of creating craziness. But right now, where I’m at is actually trying to create heirlooms. And I think fashion is going in a direction, where it’s [about] creating classic pieces that can be handed down from generation to generation. 

Photo: Courtesy of LVMH Prize

Luca Magliano, Magliano, Italy

What has been the most important decision you’ve made since starting your business that helped you get here?
Daring to do this was the biggest decision. Then, once you start, everything is super hard, but you follow the flow, go on and arrive here.

What’s inspiring you about fashion right now?
I don’t really look at fashion. I follow my story. And my story is this: super melancholic Italian man and his wardrobe. 

Photo: Courtesy of LVMH Prize

Wei Wang and Tian Shi, Marrknull, China

What has been the most important decision you’ve made since starting your business that helped you get here?
Wei Wang: Marrknull wants to express the contemporary culture in China. Everyone knows the traditional culture in fashion — the dragon, the qipao — but we want to express Chinese fashion for now, which is more impacted by pop culture. 

What does being a semi-finalist for the LVMH Prize mean to you as a designer?
WW: Entering the semi-finals will maybe help open the Europe and USA markets, because we want to say our story to whole of the world, not just China. 

What’s inspiring you about fashion right now?
WW: Mostly we’re inspired by local things in China — live things, funny things. We want to combine the old with the new to create totally new things.

Photo: Courtesy of LVMH Prize

Michael, Richard and Steve Hsieh, Namesake, Taiwan

What has been the most important decision you’ve made since starting your business that helped you get here?
Michael Hsieh: Doing this with family. Namesake was founded by brothers to honor our father.

What’s inspiring to you about fashion right now?
Steve Hsieh: Just being here, I realize there are so many different type of fashion, different type of creativity, but everyone can still be in the same space and have their own little corners.

Photo: Courtesy of LVMH Prize

Paolina Russo and Lucile Guilmard, Paolina Russo, Canada and France

What has been the most important decision you’ve made since starting your business that helped you get here?
Paolina Russo: It was really about finding the right manufacturers. It’s amazing to make this fantasy of fashion, but without production or developers, our brand can’t exist. It was about making and building those relationships, finding the right teams who believe in the same vision as us, who want to push product as much as we want to and develop it in a way which feels like innovative, sustainable and collaborative. 

Lucile Guilmard: And being able to open those conversations on a very authentic, fluid level.

What does being a semi-finalist for the LVMH Prize mean to you as a designer?
PR: We’re in this little bubble of the craft and the making. Being able to exit that bubble and celebrate the work that we’ve been doing with people who want to celebrate it with us, it’s…

LG: … a huge validation.

Photo: Courtesy of LVMH Prize

Veronica Leoni, Quira, Italy

What has been the most important decision you’ve made since starting your business that helped you get here?
It’s just about a very big faith in product. I really do believe that the quality and creativity at the center of the project will be the way for Quira to establish itself and find its own way to be relevant and recognizable, to find authority.

What does being a semi-finalist for the LVMH Prize mean to you as a designer?
I’m very excited, honestly. I worked at LVMH for so long, it’s coming back home. 

What’s inspiring you about fashion right now?
Everything that’s out of fashion inspires me very much. What I’m after is an idea of style that’s quite immaterial and not at all into trends.

Photo: Courtesy of LVMH Prize

Satoshi Kuwata, Setchu, Japan

What has been the most important decision you’ve made since starting your business that helped you get here?
Believe in less is more.

What does being a semi-finalist for the LVMH Prize mean to you as a designer?
Like winning the lottery.

What’s inspiring you about fashion right now?
Fashion doesn’t inspire me, actually. It’s more what I do, like traveling, functionality, reality — that’s where my inspiration comes from.

Photo: Courtesy of LVMH Prize

Stina Randestad, Stinarand, Sweden

What has been the most important decision you’ve made since starting your business that helped you get here?
Trusting my gut feeling about what projects to take on and not. It’s scary to say no sometimes when you’re being offered projects, but you have to keep a steady course and do what feels right in your belly, follow your ethics.

What does being a semi-finalist for the LVMH Prize mean to you as a designer?
It’s been a very positive vibe here. I’m very grateful for that. But also, to meet the experts and journalists and guests, getting feedback in real life, showing my garments, which have a lot of texture and you want to touch and experience in real life, see how they move… It’s very difficult to translate on the screen. It’s been a lot of screen time lately.

Photo: Courtesy of LVMH Prize

Wataru Tominaga, Japan

What has been the most important decision you’ve made since starting your business that helped you get here?
Keeping my passion for what I like. I especially like prints, so I keep doing a lot like experimental things with fabric and original prints.

What does being a semi-finalist for the LVMH Prize mean to you as a designer?
It’s a very great opportunity for young designers to meet really great people at once in one place, in only two days. I’m very honored to be here.

Photo: Courtesy of LVMH Prize

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Source: Fashionista.com

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