British designer Grace Wales Bonner has become the third winner of the LVMH Prize for young talent — following in the footsteps of Thomas Tait and Marques Almeida — per Women’s Wear Daily. Wales Bonner graduated from Central Saint Martins in 2014, and won the Emerging Menswear Honors at the British Fashion Awards the following year. Her collections have drawn on African and West Indian influences (her father is from Jamaica) while also incorporating elements of British tailoring.
Nineteen-year-old Vejas Kruszewski, who designs the label Vejas, received a special jury prize from the judges, who included Karl Lagerfeld and Phoebe Philo. The other nominees for the prize were Brandon Maxwell, Alyx’s Matthew Williams, Hiromichi Ochiai of Facetasm, Glenn Martens of Y/Project, Christine Kocher of Koché, and Aalto’s Tuomas Merikoski. They were winnowed down from a group of around 1,000 applicants, according to the Women’s Wear Daily report — so they should feel pretty good about themselves, as well.
