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The 9 Finalists from the 2021 LVMH Prize for Young Fashion Designers

Photo credit: Victor VIRGILE - Getty Images
Photo credit: Victor VIRGILE - Getty Images

Updated 4/29/21:

LVMH has released the names of the nine finalists of its highly-coveted Prize for Young Fashion Designers.

On Wednesday, the luxury conglomerate announced that after going completely digital and letting the public vote on their favorite, there were not the usual eight, but nine designers who made the cut. The list of finalists includes, Bianca Saunders, Charles de Vilmorin, Christopher John Rogers, Conner Ives, KidSuper’s Colm Dillane, Kika Vargas, Lukhanyo Mdingi, Nensi Dojaka, and Rui’s Rui Zhou. The group of talent will go on to the next and last round to win the final prize of a be-spoke one-year LVMH mentorship and an $360,000 endowment.

Original Story: 4/14/21:

For the last eight years, the LVMH Prize for Young Fashion Designers has been in the business of championing new talent.

Attracting more than 1,900 candidates from all around the world, the 2021 LVMH event will showcase 20 emerging designers from countries that include not only the United States and the United Kingdom, but the markets of Nigeria, Japan, China, South Korea, France, Italy, Lebanon, South Africa, and, for the first time since its conception, Albania and Colombia as well. The first-place winner will receive a €300,000 (about $360,000) endowment and a one-year bespoke mentorship with the LVMH team.

"This [event] will be entirely digital, and we wanted to open it up to the greatest number of people," Executive Vice President and Director of LVMH Delphine Arnault explained in a press release. Each of the semifinalists was chosen for their commitment to what she called a "responsible stance in their creative vision" and the use of initiatives to push the fashion industry forward. "Among the semi-finalists, seven do womenswear, five menswear, and two do both womenswear and menswear. Six of them design genderless collections," Arnault divulged. "This edition also saw the return of knitwear, body-conscious garments and the celebration of color among certain designers."

Emerging talent that made the short list includes names you may be familiar with like A-list favorites Christopher John Rogers, KidSuper, and Rui, the label that helped spearhead the cut-out trend that's all over social media feeds right now. But the lineup also includes a wide variety of fresh faces like Alicia Robinson of psychedelic knitwear brand AGR and menswear designers Bianca Saunders, Lukhanyo Mdingi, and Saul Nash.

Marking yet another first for the esteemed fashion conglomerate, LVMH offered the public a rare opportunity to vote for their candidates of choice on the LVMH Prize website.

To get a feel for some of the brands featured on the list, below is a selection of pieces from their past collections, which are available for purchase right now.

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