THE 2021 LVMH PRIZE

Chaired by Delphine Arnault, the LVMH Prize honours and supports young designers from a wide range of different backgrounds. From ethical approaches to sustainable manufacturing and new ways of playing the codes, this year’s nine semi-finalists promise a sparkling future for fashion.

For eight years now, the LVMH Prize has been helping young fashion talent – support that, in the context of today’s coronavirus pandemic, is more necessary than ever. While candidates usually show their collections at the LVMH headquarters on avenue Montaigne, this year the first stages of what is, inevitably, a very particular edition of the prize took place online. Though we didn’t get to see, for example, Kanye West and Jonathan Anderson casually chatting with young London designers, the 2021 edition innovated by asking the public to join the panel of fashion experts in electing the nine finalists. More than ever, their very diverse profiles show how fashion is a sounding board for the culture of its time. Sustainability as an obligation, redefinition of clothing genres and codes, ethical production and approaches at the frontier of art are just a few of the themes tackled by the young finalists.

As Virgil Abloh, artistic director of Louis Vuitton’s menswear line, has said on many occasions, the word “streetwear” is pretty much redundant today given how much the new generation of men happily mixes codes taken from classic tailoring with far more relaxed dress styles inherited, among others, from skate culture. Shirts, jackets and trousers have become less formal, while hoodies and parkas are sometimes luxury items. This is the reality that British-Jamaican designer Bianca Saunders takes as the starting point for her work. Seeking to redefine traditional perceptions of masculinity, she proposes simply cut, functional garments, but revisits them where volume and hang are concerned. With her sophisticated colour palette and handcrafting, she brings out all the classicism and experimentation that is inherent in “streetwear,” for example in a very handsome denim ensemble accented with a crumpled-denim print. Her poetic vision of the masculine has already seduced, among others, Afrobeats star Wizkid, who often wears her clothing, not to mention American actor Lakeith Stanfield, famous for his roles in Get Out and the Donald Glover series Atlanta.

There are, moreover, Americans among the finalists this year, who have adopted positions inherited from Postmodernism that see them questioning the limits between art and fashion, “high” and pop culture, and playing with archetypes. With his label KidSuper, New Yorker Colm Dillane mixes his artistic side – he’s both a painter and director – with his passion for sport and superheroes, feeding off the vitality of the neighbourhood where his Brooklyn store is located to feature, for example, a local sitar player wearing his clothes. His colourful silhouettes, which sometimes adopt almost regressive, cocoon-like volumes, are adorned with stories often derived from his large-scale paintings. Humour is omnipresent in his approach, as in his creations.

Christopher John Rogers, meanwhile, inspired by voguing

and the performance attitude of the ballroom scene, has redefined the typically American glamour of the cocktail dress. Already singled out for prizes in 2019 and 2020 by the Council of Fashion Designers of America, his often extravagant and luxurious creations, made using artisanal techniques, have been worn by a cohort of celebrities, among them top model Adwoa Aboah, former first lady Michelle Obama, Lady Gaga, actress and musician Tessa Thompson and queer rapper Lil Nas X. But it was in January, when the new American vice-president Kamala Harris took the oath of office wearing a beautiful purple coat of his making, that the designer became an overnight sensation.

Based in London, where he studied at Central Saint Martins,

Rogers’s compatriot Conner Ives recycles the feminine archetypes of Americana while practising upcycling, for example making trousers out of an American college sweatshirt, the lettering becoming complete scrambled. Using 75% vintage clothing or fabric leftovers, he translates his nostalgia for America into a visual language, inventing eccentric socialite characters in dresses made entirely of scarves or in spectacular sequined ball-shaped gowns.

The fantasies of Frenchman Charles de Vilmorin, on the other hand, take a very different route. Between psychedelia, graceful lines inherited from Jean Cocteau or Niki de Saint Phalle and genderless cocoon shapes that are in keeping with today’s mores, the young designer, who has already been named artistic director of Rochas, astonishes and seduces with his idiosyncratic, enchanting universe that is totally in tune with the Zeitgeist. Colombian Kika Vargas, meanwhile, offers a different kind of romanticism. After

The very diverse profiles of this year’s nine finalists show how fashion is a sounding board for the

culture of its time.

studying art and fashion, she launched her own label in 2010, which focuses on romantic feminine silhouettes. Her softly shaped dresses, which combine ruffles and leg-of-mutton sleeves, sometimes borrow baby doll cuts and bloom with colour (inspired by her years at Missoni) and hand-drawn prints.

South Africa’s Lukhanyo Mdingi offers sublime elegance for both

men and women. His sleek silhouettes are the result of unique collaborations with artisans, particularly those specialising in sophisticated weaving, whose skills, handed down from generation to generation, are used to create an entirely contemporary wardrobe. Through his ethical production, Mdingi supports these artisans and promotes their work. His creations have already garnered industry recognition, notably at the Pitti Uomo fair in Florence.

In contrast to Mdingi’s silhouettes, which sometimes incorporate rich and beautiful weaves, two candidates offer second-skin pieces that appear almost fragile. This, moreover, is the word that Chinese designer Rui Zhou, founder of the label RUI, spontaneously uses, evoking the space between the body and the garment as a zone that reveals “the power of fragility.” Her spidery garments, sometimes embracing the entire body in the manner of totally deconstructed dancewear, radically redefine gender codes when worn by a man: like an “anti-Superman” outfit, they reveal the wearer’s vulnerability.

Fragile too, or at any rate extremely delicate, the work of

Albanian designer Nensi Dojaka, a Londoner by adoption, is made from silk or muslin veils. Sometimes realized using corsetry techniques, her bodysuits and dresses show off a lot of skin. Between lingerie and clothing, her wardrobe, which subtly plays with the veiled and unveiled, has been shown in the Fashion East section of London Fashion Week. Having already been commissioned for a capsule collection by Ssense, the renowned online retailer, the Central Saint Martins graduate has made a name for herself with just three collections to her credit.

At the September final, all these young talents will show their work

to the seasoned artistic directors of the LVMH houses, who must then decide between them. Given the quality of the proposals, the deliberations are shaping up to be a real heartbreaker.