Andam announces 13 finalists for its 2022 edition
Who will be taking home the five Swarovski trophies designed by Egonlab last year? The Andam fashion competition for young designers is preparing its 2022 edition, endowed with a total prize pool of 550,000 euros for the winners of the different categories. For this 33rd edition, the 33 members of the jury made up of 21 permanent members (including Bruno Pavlovsky of Chanel, accompanied by Michael Kliger of Mytheresa, and Sidney Toledano of LVMH Fashion Group, among others) along with 12 guest members (including rapper Abd Al Malik; designer Stéphane Ashpool, and choreographer Blanca Li, among others) will select the winners among the 13 finalists.
"I am very proud of the strong coordination of our private and institutional sponsors, both French and international, who together allowed the Andam Fashion Awards to raise an exceptional €620,000 (including the €70,000 already given to the winner of the Innovation category)," explained Nathalie Dufour, founder and managing director of Andam. "I would like to honor the expertise and thank the commitment of our jury members, who selected 13 talented finalists with creative projects and unique visions."
Seven candidates will compete for the grand prize and the special prize of 300,000 and 100,000 euros, respectively. Last year, British designer Bianca Saunders won the grand prize. This year, the names selected include some already well-known designers, such as South African designer Lukhanyo Mdingi, who won the Karl Lagerfeld prize of the LVMH prize last year; Caribbean brand Botter, directed by creative duo Rushemy Botter and Lisi Herrebrugh, who recently stepped down as creative directors of Nina Ricci; and the Swiss designers behind Ottolinger, Christa Bösch and Cosima Gradient, whose brand has been a regular at Paris Fashion Week since 2017.
The list of finalists also includes the American women's ready-to-wear brand Peter Do, launched in 2018 as a multicultural collective that reinterpret tailoring. With their Heliot Emil brand, brothers Julius and Victor Juul seek to fuel a dialogue between the shape and function of clothing using technological innovations. Meanwhile, Hong Kong-born and London-based designer Robert Wun launched his business in 2014, "through the interplay between sculpturing silhouettes and a graphical approach in details, [the brand] aims to create collections that tell stories and explore the idea of visibility and liberation," he specified. The list ends with Cool TM, founded in Paris in 2019 under Thomas Monet’s creative direction (who has previously worked at Faith Connexion, Yiqing Yin and Balmain), whose style carries a colorful and optimistic flair.
Three finalists are in the running for the Pierre Bergé award: Benjamin Benmoyal, who made it to the Paris Fashion Week calendar last year and recently launched a remarkable collaboration with La Redoute; Bluemarble by Anthony Alvarez, launched in 2019 and slated for the first day of the upcoming Fashion Week Men's; and Boyarovskaya, which since 2016 has been blending the visions of Belarusian designer Maria Boyarovskaya (who has worked for Givenchy) and Ukrainian fashion photographer Artem Kononenko.
As for the prize dedicated to accessories, the finalists include 13 09 SR, creative director Serge Ruffieux’s new brand; sneaker brand Ancuta Sarca, created by the eponymous Romanian designer, and Dolly Cohen's jewelry designs.
The innovation prize has already been awarded to dye specialist Ever Dye. The final awards ceremony will be held on June 30.
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