Who will be the next winner?

THE shortlist for this year’s LVMH Prize for Young Fashion Designers has been unveiled, reports AFP Relaxnews.

A total of 20 creatives have been selected to proceed to the next stage of the prestigious annual fashion prize, from more than 1,300 applicants in over 90 countries. For the 2018 edition, the shortlist shines the spotlight on gender-neutral fashion, with six of the shortlisted designers dealing in co-ed clothing. There are also eight womenswear designers, four menswear designers, and two creatives with both male and female collections.

“Gender-neutral fashion, already present in former editions, has gained considerable ground, thus proving that the Prize echoes the recent evolutions in fashion,” said Delphine Arnault, head of the Prize’s selection committee, in a statement. “The designs of the 20 semi-finalists reflect the current trends in fashion, where streetwear is progressing and continues to shape designs that challenge traditional categories, borrowing from menswear and womenswear.”

The shortlist includes London-based UK labels “A-Cold-Wall” by Samuel Ross and Charles Jeffrey’s “Charles Jeffrey Loverboy”. US brands include “Eckhaus Latta” by Zoe Latta and Mike Eckhaus, Matthew Adams Dolan’s eponymous line, and “NIHL” by Neil Grotzinger. Japanese talent is represented by the Tokyo-based labels “Akikoaoki” and “Doublet”, while South Korean designers on the list include “Rokh” by Rok Hwang and “The Sirius” by Younchan Chung. Norwegian creative Edda Gimnes’ brand “Edda”, Polish Magdalena Butrym’s label “Magdalena Butrym” and Chinese designer Snow Gao’s “Snow Xue Gao” have also made the cut. “Botter” by Dutch designers Rushemy Botter & Lisi Herrebrugh, “Marta Jakubowski” by the German Marta Jakubowski, and the Swiss duo Christa Bösch and Cosima Gadient’s “Ottolinger” also gained a place on the list, as did the French labels “Faustine Steinmetz” and “Ludovic de Saint Sernin”. Mixed nationality duos include the American and Portuguese Reid Baker and Ines Amorim with “Ernest W. Baker”, German and Norwegian duo Serhat Isik and Benjamin Alexander Huseby with “GMBH”, and the French and American-Vietnamese team Léa Dickely and Hung La, whose “Kwaidan Editions” rounds out the lis t.

Eight finalists will be selected from the shorlisted creatives. The LVMH Prize will be awarded in June 2018.