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Loewe Craft Prize, Yu Prize give out their 2022 awards
Alongside prestigious emerging designer competitions, such as the LVMH and ANDAM prizes, and the prize awarded at the Hyères festival, smaller, but no less interesting prizes have been created in recent years, promoted by labels like Loewe and Amiri, or by wealthy patrons like Chinese businesswoman Wendy Yu, founder and CEO of Yu Holdings Group, an investor in new start-ups. These new competitions have recently shone the spotlight on interesting fresh talents.
The Yu Prize, the only competition of its kind existing in China, was recently awarded to Alex Po and Derek Cheng of Ponder.er, a gender-fluid label featured on the French Haute Couture and Fashion Federation’s website for three seasons, whose style challenges traditional menswear codes. The Hong Kong-based designer duo frequented London’s Central Saint Martins School, before founding their label in 2019.
The Yu Prize’s 2022 edition was awarded in partnership with Chinese sports brand Li Ning, with which the winners will be able to collaborate. The prize has a RMB1 million purse and also gives the winner the opportunity of a one-year mentorship by Italian fashion group OTB, a two-season slot at the Sphere showroom in Paris, a retail presence at Harrods and promotional support on the Chinese e-tail site Xiaohongshu.
The Loewe Craft Prize was launched in 2016 by the Spanish label’s Creative Director Jonathan Anderson. Its 2022 edition recognised Korean designer/artisan Dahye Jeong for her work entitled ‘A Time of Sincerity’, made with horse hair adopting a traditional local technique dating back more than 500 years, used in the past to make hats.
Jeong will receive €50,000 in prize money. She was selected among 30 finalists by a jury of 13 influential names from the worlds of design, architecture, journalism, art criticism and museum curation, including Magdalene Odundo, Anatxu Zabalbeascoa, Deyan Sudjic, Abraham Thomas and Patricia Urquiola. The jury also gave two special mentions, to Andile Dyalvane of South Africa and Julia Obermaier of Germany.
Californian designer Mike Amiri launched the Amiri Prize last year with the idea of creating “an annual competition and a fashion incubator for unknown American fashion talents.” The first edition recognised designer NaaAmerley Badger, who recently rechristened her Paulo Redeem label as Lou Badger.
Thanks to the $100,000 prize money she won last year, the self-taught black US designer, now based in Mexico where she works with local artisans, was able to broaden her horizons and power up her label, founded in 2019.
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