Each year the Swiss Textile Federation awards a €100,000 prize to young designers, €10,000 of which must be used to buy Swiss textiles. It’s great for the designers, who get a load of money, and great for Swiss fabrics that will automatically be used in a cool show. The prize is one of the big ones in the industry, and was awarded last night to Mary Katrantzou, who beat out fellow nominees Jason Wu, Duro Olowu, Adam Kimmel, Juun J, and Damir Doma. Alexander Wang won the prize last year and said the prize was great for business and the textiles he bought from Switzerland will in turn be available to you to buy once his first stand-alone store opens in Soho in the near future.
British Vogue asked Katrantzou what she planned to do for her next collection. “It’s a progression of this one, it’s not as thematic and it’s darker than this season,” she said. “The thing is if I say too much then it will give it away. Like with this collection if I had said ‘rooms’, it would have given it away completely.” Oh, for sure — looking at this dress, “rooms” is absolutely that one word that screams out from one’s passing thoughts. Well, after holy crap I want.
Katrantzou’s Crown [Vogue UK]
