It is almost crunch time for the LVMH Prize 2025. The luxury giant’s emerging designer competition, now in its 12th edition, having been first held in 2014, has received 2,300 applications from all over the world. From these, the jury has selected 20 semi-finalist labels from 15 countries, picking for the first time a designer from Saudi Arabia, Ahmed Hassan and his label KLM, set up in 2022, one from Egypt, Yasmin Mansour, who founded his label in 2014 in Qatar, and one from Ghana, David Boye-Doe, who founded the Boyedoe luxury label in 2020.
 

The most represented continent is Europe, with 10 emerging labels. From France, Alain Paul, who showed for the first time in Paris last September with his Alainpaul label, founded in 2023, and another emerging Paris Fashion Week name, Zomer, the Dutch womenswear label by Tatarstan-born Danial Aitouganov. From Italy, Francesco Murano, who will debut this month at Milan Fashion Week, while Sigurd Bank, founder of the Mfpen label in 2017, hails from Denmark. All-In, the label by US designer Benjamin Barron and Norwegian Bror August Vestbø, was founded in Paris in 2015 as a magazine, and in 2019 it morphed into a women’s/unisex ready-to-wear label big on recycling.

Also from Europe, Ireland’s Sinéad O’Dwyer, winner of the Zalando Visionary Award in 2024, who founded her inclusive label in 2018, and her compatriot Nicklas Skovgaard, who launched his label in 2020, as well as three designers from the UK: Nigeria-born Tolu Coker, who won the Diesel Prize at the ITS fashion competition in Trieste, Italy, in 2018, and has since been showing in London; Steve O Smith, who after several work experiences went back to school, creating her own label in 2022 after graduating from Central Saint Martins; and Torishéju Dumi, a designer with Brazilian-Nigerian roots, who launched her label Torishéju in 2023.

Asia ranks second as a continent, with four semi-finalists. Xiang Gao, born in China and now based in the USA, who worked with Raf Simons at Calvin Klein and founded her label, Penultimate, in 2019. From Japan, Soshi Otsuki, an LVMH Prize semi-finalist in 2016 with his label Soshiotsuki, which he set up a year earlier, and Ryota Muakami, who in 2020 changed the name of his label Ryotamuakami, founded in 2016, to Pillings. From South Korea, Sang Lim Lee and Young Shin Hong, who met at school aged 14 and are the duo behind sustainable label Young N Sang, founded in 2018.

Two semi-finalists come from the USA: Meruert Tolegen, created in 2019 by designer Meruert Planul-Tolegen, whose family is originally from Kazakhstan, and the label by textile artist Josh Tafoya, who launched in fashion after graduating in 2013 from the Parsons New School of Design, and whose work reinterprets the textile heritage of New Mexico.

Finally, Lebanese designer Cynthia Merhej, who was an LVMH Prize semi-finalist in 2021. She founded artisanal label Renaissance Renaissance in 2020, and won a scholarship sponsored by the Maison Mode Méditerranée endowment fund in 2023.

Winner to pocket €400,000

“Renewed interest in tailored elegance, sophisticated craftsmanship, and a bold interpretation of eveningwear,” were the strong trends emerging from this semi-final shortlist, as underlined by LVMH Prize founder Delphine Arnault in a press release. “Once again this year, many of the [shortlisted] labels have put research and a focus on aesthetics at the heart of their approach, echoing the second edition of the Savoir Faire Prize. The latter emphasises the importance of craftsmanship skills, innovation and sustainability, three key issues shaping the current outlook of the fashion and luxury industries,” said Arnault.

The semi-finalists will present their collections in Paris on March 5-6, and only eight among them will be picked for the final by a committee of over 80 industry experts. The finalists’ names will be revealed in March, and the 2025 LVMH Prize will be formally awarded a few months later.

The winner will receive a €400,000 cash prize, and the winner of the special Karl Lagerfeld prize will receive €200,000. The winner of the third award, the Savoir Faire Prize, introduced in 2024, will also receive €200,000. All three winners will benefit from a one-year mentorship 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 30 2025.