The 8 nominated designers: Arthur Arbesser, Coperni, Craig Green, Faustine Steinmetz, Jacquemus, Marques’Almeida, Off-White C/O Virgil Abloh, Vetements
The luxury group LVMH has been supporting designers for years, backing up coveted awards like ANDAM or CDFA. In November 2013, the luxury giant went even further launching their own prize for young and talented designers. The LVMH Young Fashion Award was established for designers under 40 years old who have created and sold at least two ready-to-wear collections. Who deserves to be rewarded is to be decided by the jury composed of nine creative directors of the LVMH brands, including Karl Lagerfeld of Fendi, Phoebe Philo of Céline and Marc Jacobs whose eponymous brand belongs to the conglomerate as well. In the end, three young designers are to get financial reward and the all-encompassing patronage from LVMH including assistance in PR and production of clothes.
Last year the main prize of €300,000 and the one-year mentorship was given to the Canadian Thomas Tait, who shows his collections in London. On 22 May 2015 the jury is set to announce the winners chosen from the eight designers shortlisted for the final stage of the competition.
Faustine Steinmetz.
Faustine Steinmetz
French-born and London-based Faustine Steinmetz is a graduate of Saint Martins College and student of the late Louise Wilson. Steinmetz works – as she says – on “a frontier between fast and slow fashion”: the mundane-looking denim pieces from her womenswear collections are in fact hand-dyed, hand-woven and hand-embroidered. Each item takes about one week to create and is made of recycled materials. With her work the designer re-assesses the relationship between art and fashion, between mass-market and Haute Couture.
Arthur Arbesser
Arthur Arbesser
Arthur Arbesser (29) is another Saint Martins College graduate. The Milan-based designer wasworking for Armani before starting his own womenswear brand in 2013. Arbesser, who was born in Vienna, takes inspirations from the Austrian culture using the traditional Loden cloth, recreating Wiener Werkstätte-like patterns or using Schubert’s melodies as accompaniment for his presentations. The designer mentions Isa Genzken as one of his chief influences and indeed his sweaters woven from fishing lines bring to mind the artist’s trashy aesthetics.
Jacquemus
Jacquemus
The 24-year-old Simon Porte Jacquemus is a self-taught Parisian designer who only two years ago quit his job at a Comme des Garçons store to work solely on his womenswear brand. Jacquemus – as he puts it – ‘tells stories’ with his creations. The last SS15 story was told with asymmetry, layers and inventive shapes and was about kids playing with clothes and storming through their mothers’ wardrobes. The runway show continued with the idea of childish naivety, as models walked the catwalk barefoot and with faces painted on their cheeks in homage to the famous ‘Doublefaced’ photo-series by Sebastian Bieniek.
Craig Green
Craig Green
Whatever Craig Green (28) does, he always succeeds in stirring emotions. His first menswear SS14 collection, presented at London Collections: Men, consisted of sculptural garments made of planks. The scratched, chaotic pieces resembled scaffolding more than conventional menswear, and were met with vehement criticism from some British media. Green’s latest collection, however, brought the audience to tears: this time the London-based designer focused on colour. The collection was composed of monochrome pieces with each colour having a specific emotional meaning: thus, the red pieces shown in the middle of the show, surrounded by other monochromes stood for vulnerability, fragility and insecurity.
Coperni
Coperni
Coperni manage to combine simplicity and inventiveness in their calm sculptural pieces with neat silhouettes and the origami-inspired decoration. The duo, who live and work in Paris, made an impressive start, winning the prestigious ANDAM award for their very first collection shown in 2013. Sébastien Meyer and Arnaud Vaillant – the founders of the label – stay true to their own purism and basic forms. Their last collection for AW15 celebrated the primary circular shape. And what could be a more suitable motivation for a label named after one of the greatest astronomers?
Marques’Almeida
Marques ’ Almeida
Asymmetric pieces, knotted crop tops, fringed garments and omnipresent denim: clothes by the London-based label Marques ’ Almeida, founded by the Portuguese-born Central Saint Martins graduates Marta Marques and Paulo Almeida are recognizable even in the globalized fashion world. Throughout their four-year existence, the label has been experimenting with layering and lighter fabrics like chiffon but never failed to present their creative denim pieces. Perhaps, it is this consistency that has won the designers a coterie of true fans.
Off-White c/o Virgil Abloh
Off White c/o Virgil Abloh
Virgil Abloh (34) has been working as Kanye West’s creative director since 2001, but fashion has always been on his mind. Abloh, trained as engineer, creates pieces full of artistic references and anything but minimalistic. Works by Mies van der Rohe, Caravaggio and Martha Stewart are cited as constant inspirations, pieces are decorated with the striking combinations of stripes, graffiti-like appliqués and wording. The Milan-based label by the multitalented Abloh offers clothes for both sexes.
Vetements
Vetements
Vetements, the brand consisting of seven graduates from Antwerp’s Royal Academy of Fine Arts, follows the Belgian fashion tradition in both publicity-policy and style. The clothes made by the Parisian-based brand are minimalistic, almost severe but elegant. It is hard not to draw a line between the brand and Maison Martin Margiela where the seven designers worked at different periods of time. That is, perhaps, the only personal detail known about the team – they prefer to remain anonymous in order not to distract attention from the clothes they make.
Text by Ira Solomatina
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