SIKI IM and Tanya Taylor named International Woolmark Prize USA winners

By

Obi Anyanwu

Published
Jul 22, 2015

The Woolmark Company on Tuesday night announced SIKI IM and Tanya Taylor as the respective menswear and womenswear winners of the 2015/16 International Woolmark Prize USA regional finals. The awards ceremony was held at Milk Studios on the evening of July 21.

The winners were chosen by a judging panel that consisted InStyle Editor-in-Chief, Ariel Foxman; Eric Jennings and Colleen Sherin of Saks Fifth Avenue; Francisco Costa, Women’s Creative Director for Calvin Klein Collection; John Varvatos; Malcolm Carfrae, the Global Head of Communications, Public Relations and Media, Ralph Lauren; Michelle Lee, the Director of Americas for The Woolmark Company, Stefano Tonchi, the Editor-in-Chief, W Magazine and Steven Kolb the CEO of the CFDA.
 
Siki Im said after winning the prize, “Many thanks to The Woolmark Company for their support of emerging designers and for giving all of us a platform to reach an international audience.”

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Tanya Taylor added, “It was such an honor to be nominated by The Woolmark Company and to be chosen to represent the US for the women’s designer challenge. To be announced as the winner by Francisco Costa is a dream. I’m thrilled and so looking forward to February and meeting the global finalists.”
 
The two winners who were chosen amongst 10 finalists won AU$50,000, or US$37,110, and the opportunity to represent the US in competition for the international final. The winners will develop a capsule collection in merino wool to be presented with the other regional finalists. The mens collections will be presented in Florence in January 2016, the womens collections will unveil in New York City in February 2016.
 
The winners of the International Woolmark Prize will be awarded AU$100,000, or US$74,210, and the opportunity to be stocked in top world retailers, Harvey Nichols, 10 Corso Como, Matchesfashion.com, MyTheresa.com, Saks Fifth Avenue, Joyce, Isetan Mitsukoshi, Boutique 1 and David Jones.
 
Other USA finalists included menswear designers, Cadet, Lucio Castro, David Hart and Thaddeus O’Neil, and womenswear designers CG, KAELEN, Nellie Partow and Novis.
 
SIKI IM and Tanya Taylor will compete with Asia designer representatives, Munsoo Kwon and J Koo, Australia designers P. Johnson and Bianca Spender, Jonathan Christopher and Nanna Van Blaaderen of Europe and others soon to be named.