Grace Wales Bonner wins 2016 LVMH prize

By

Barbara Santamaria

Published
Jun 16, 2016

London-based menswear and womenswear designer Grace Wales Bonner was announced as the winner of the LVMH prize in Paris on Thursday.

She will receive a grant of 300,000 euros and personalized technical and financial support for a 12-month period to help her develop her label, Wales Bonner.

Since graduating at Central Saint Martins in 2014, the British designer has won the L’Oréal Professionnel Talent Award and the BFC’s Emerging Menswear Designer Award in 2015.

Grace Wales Bonner was selected by a panel including Nicolas Ghesquière, J.W Anderson, Marc Jacobs, Karl Lagerfeld, Humberto Leon, Carol Lim, Phoebe Philo, Riccardo Tisci, Louis Vuitton Executive VP Delphine Arnault, Jean-Paul Claverie and LVMH CEo Pierre-Yves Roussel.

LVMH also awarded a Special Prize to Vejas Kruszewski, a self-taught Canadian designer who launched his first collection at the NY Fashion Week for FW15.

Other finalists included Alyx, Y Project, Aalto, Koché, Facetasm and Brandon Maxwell.

The jury consisted of J.W. Anderson, Nicolas Ghesquière, Marc Jacobs, Karl Lagerfeld, Humberto Leon, Carol Lim, Phoebe Philo, Riccardo Tisci, Pierre-Yves Roussel (president of LVMH Fashion Group) as well as Delphine Arnault