Grace Wales Bonner wins the 2016 LVMH Prize
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London - British designer Grace Wales Bonner has been crowned the winner of the third annual LVMH Prize, the international competition which celebrates young designers. The London-based designer is set to receive a cash prize of 300,000 euros in addition to a year-long mentorship from some of the top executives at fashion conglomerate LVMH.
Grace Wales Bonner is the winner of the LVMH Prize 2016
Her label Wales Bonner is known for its strong gender fluid menswear collections. A Central Saint Martins graduate, Bonner’s brand was named the best emerging menswear designer at the 2015 British Fashion Council Awards. The designer was named the winner from a shortlist of eight brands: Aalto, Alyx, Brandon Maxwell, Facetasm, Koché, Vejas, Wales Bonner and Y/Project, during an event at the Louis Vuitton Foundation in Paris.
A special jury prize was given to Canadian designer Vejas Kruszewski, who has been awarded 150,000 euro grant plus one year of mentoring. The 19 year old Kruszewski is the youngest designer to be nominated and awarded a LVMH Prize for his Toronto-based label Vejas.
The winners were announced during a ceremony at the Louis Vuitton Foundation, which was live streamed on the company’s social media channels. The event followed on from a series of presentations made by the designers in front of the jury which included several of LVMH’s designer champions, such as Karl Lagerfeld, Phoebe Philo, Marc Jacobs, Nicolas Ghesquière, Riccardo Tisci, and Jonathan Anderson.
Bonner follows in the footsteps of the previous winners of the LVMH Prize, which are also based in London and Central Saint Martins graduates. Thomas Tait was hailed the winner of the inaugural LVMH Prize in 2014, followed by the design duo Marques’ Almeida in 2015.