Today, the names of the nine finalists for the 2023 LVMH Prize were announced in Paris, chosen by a panel of experts and the public, who could vote for their favorite.
They are: Julie Pelipas’s Better from Ukraine, Burc Akyol from France, Raul Lopez’s Luar from USA, Satoshi Kuwata’s Setchu from Japan, Rachel Scott’s from Jamaica Diotima, Magliano Luca Magliano from Italy, Aaron Esh from Great Britain, Paulina Russo from Canada and France and Paolina Russo from Lucile Guilmard, and Quira from Veronica Leoni from Italy. They have spread across the globe, from Ukraine and France to Japan and Jamaica, in womenswear, menswear and genderless categories. The nine finalists, selected from a group of 10 semifinalists, will compete for the Grand Prize and the Karl Lagerfeld Prize later this spring.
“Choosing the finalists was very difficult – that’s why this year we chose nine instead of the usual eight!” said Delphine Arnault, CEO of Christian Dior. “This class marks the anniversary of the award, which addresses social and industry issues: advocacy for inclusion, diversity, craft, and local and ethical production.”
According to Arnault, some key takeaways from this year’s creative talent include Diotima being the first Jamaican brand to be welcomed into any stage of the competition, and the four finalists being self-taught designers, including 6 are over 35 years old and have launched their own brands in recent years. “[It] will demonstrate how universal and open the industry really is,” she added.
“Each candidate has a strong, impactful and meaningful approach to fashion,” Arnault said, alluding to the group’s idiosyncrasies. Diotima’s Rachel Scott brings a reverence for the craft by highlighting Jamaican crochet artists, while Better’s Julie Pelipas, former fashion director of UkrainianVogue, founded her own The brand, as an upcycling system, can redesign slow-moving garments based on a customer’s physical metrics. London-born Aaron Esh and Bologna-based Luca Magliano have both broadly redefined menswear, while Luar’s Raul Lopez and Paulina Russo and Paulina Russo’s Lucile Guilmard have distilled the best of the culture around them into their wares— —Whether Fluidity is a vision of downtown New York in the former, or a mix of Canadian suburbia and French folklore in the latter. Finally, Burc Akyol, Quira’s Veronica Leoni and Setchu’s Satoshi Kuwata bring years of experience at some of the world’s top brands, including Givenchy, Christian Dior, Balenciaga, Jil Sander and Celine, to their own labels.
“The outstanding quality of these finalists is further evidence of the importance of the award for young fashion designers,” said Arnault. This will soon be put to the test when the designers meet the LVMH designer jury at the Fondation Louis Vuitton on June 7.
