LVMH Prize 2024 reveals names of 20 semi-finalists

The LVMH Prize, one of fashion’s most important emerging designer competitions, is staging its 11th edition, having been first organised by the world’s number-one luxury group in 2014. This year, it received over 2,500 applications from around the world, compared to 2,400 last year, and has selected 20 labels from 18 countries to compete in the semi-final scheduled in Paris on February 29 and March 1. Between February 29 and March 5, the general public will be able to cast online votes to help a jury of experts pick the eight finalists.

The competition is increasingly broadening its horizons. The semi-finalists include for the first time a designer from Togo, Jacques Agbobly, based in New York where he graduated from the Parsons School of Design and launched his Agbobly label in 2023, a Mexican designer, Patricio Campillo, with his menswear label Campillo, and one from Moldova, Fidan Novruzova.

European designers are well represented, making up nearly half of the shortlist with eight names, some of whom have already staged runways shows. Like Dutch artist-designer Duran Lantink, winner of the ANDAM special prize in 2023, and Marie Adam-Leenaerdt from Belgium, both showing their collections in Paris, while Italian designer Niccolò Pasqualetti and Swedish label Hodakova by Ellen Hodakova Larsson are included in the Parisian presentation calendar.

Pauline Dujancourt from France, Paolo Carzana from the UK, and Irish designer Michael Steward with his Standing Ground label, have previously shown their collections at London Fashion Week. Bearing witness to the LVMH Prize’s rich cultural mix are Spanish-Chinese designer Yayi Chen Zhou, who set up her Ya Yi label in New York, and Yonathan Carmel from Israel, who presented his Vautrait label last September during Paris Fashion Week.

Asia is represented by ChiaHung Su, the label by Taiwanese designer Chia Hung Su, Jiyongkim by Korean designer Jiyong Kim, and Koki by Japanese designer Koki Abe, and by genderless label Ponder.er by Chinese duo Alex Po and Derek Cheng, which the French Fashion and Haute Couture Federation has backed for several seasons via the Sphère showroom.

Urban influences, refined womenswear

The shortlist is completed by three US labels – Who Decides War by the Everard Best and Tela D’Amore Best duo, and Elena Velez, both showing in New York, and Aubero by Julian Louie – and by the label of London-based Brazilian designer Karoline Vitto, who is showing in London. 
 
“This edition is characterised by original propositions with a strong urban influence, and by a return to refined womenswear. Many of these labels have placed research and aesthetics at the heart of their approach, echoing the new Prix des Savoir-Faire,” said in a press release Delphine Arnault, one of the LVMH Prize’s masterminds, adding that she is expecting an “exceptional 2024 edition.”

The newly created Prix des Savoir-Faire will reward technical expertise, and is endowed with a €200,000 purse. The other prizes awarded at the final are the LVMH Prize, worth €400,000 as opposed to €300,000 in 2023, and the Karl Lagerfeld Prize, whose value will also increase, from €150,000 last year to €200,000. In both cases, the winners will benefit from a one-year mentoring by the luxury group’s staff. LVMH will also recognise, as usual, three recent fashion academy graduates. Applications by the latter are open until March 17 2024.