Unisex fashion makes an impact at LVMH Prize 2018

The selection committee of the LVMH Prize 2018 examined 1,300 candidates from 90 countries, and eventually picked 20 semi-finalists for the fifth edition of the competition, which recognises the emerging fashion designer of the year. Among the select few who will showcase their work in early March, there are six designers of unisex fashion.

"Unisex fashion, already a presence in the last few years, has made a spectacular impact, showing how the LVMH Prize mirrors the new trends in contemporary fashion," said Delphine Arnault, the prize's founder and the Deputy General Manager of Louis Vuitton. Among the emerging young labels short-listed there are Doublet by Tokyo-based designer Masayuki Ino; French designer Faustine Steinmetz, based in London; the GMBH label by designer duo Serhat Isik and Benjamin Alexander Huseby (Paris); Ludovic de Saint Sernin (Paris); Matthew Adams Dolan (New York) and The Sirius, by Korean designer Younchan Chung.

"Among the twenty labels we selected, six feature a designer pair. The innovation in the creations of the 20 short-listed labels is in synch with contemporary fashion trends: streetwear continues to make inroads and is ubiquitous in collections which tend to ditch gender, borrowing from men's and women's wardrobes at once," said Delphine Arnault. The short-listed designer duos are Dutch pair Rushemy Botter and Lisi Herrebrugh (Botter), Zoe Latta and Mike Eckhaus (Eckhaus Latta), Reid Baker and Ines Amorim (Ernest W. Baker), Christa Bösch and Cosima Gadient (Ottolinger) and Léa Dickely and Hung La (Kwaidan Editions).

Samuel Ross (A-Cold-Wall), Charles Jeffrey (Charles Jeffrey Loverboy), Marta Jakubowski and Edda Gimnes (Edda), all four of them showing their collections in London, are also on the shortlist, which is completed by Akiko Aoki (Akikoaoki) from Japan, Magdalena Butrym (Magda Butrym) from Poland, Korean designer Rok Hwang (Rokh), Snow Gao (Snow Xue Gao) from China and US designer Neil Grotzinger (NIHL).

The twenty semi-finalists will present their collections on 1st and 2nd March in Paris, to a panel of 48 experts selected by LVMH who will then pick the eight finalists. The designer who will succeed Marine Serre, the French winner of the 2017 prize, will be unveiled next June. This year, the final's jury notably includes Haider Ackermann, Sidney Toledano and Clare Waight Keller. The Prize is endowed with a €300,000 purse, and the winner will receive support in growing their label.

Unisex fashion makes an impact at LVMH Prize 2018

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