For British designer Steven Stokey-Daley, taking out the top prize at the 2022 LVMH Prize Award certainly wasn’t on this year’s bingo card.
The 25-year-old, known for his subversive approach to menswear, discovered he received the award during an intimate ceremony at the Louis Vuitton Foundation in Paris.
“This is like an Oscar, actually”, the designer quipped to award-winning Australian actress Cate Blanchett as she presented him with the coveted award.
Daley takes up the mantle of the hottest young designer in the fashion industry from Albanian-British designer Nensi Dojaka, the winner of the prize’s 2022 edition.
He joins a long list of talented alumni like Marine Serre and Grace Wales Bonner who have also been awarded the accolade.
But it’s not just the recognition of being appointed the top dog of the 2022 LMVH Prize cohort by the crème de la crème of the fashion’s elite (read: Stella McCartney and Nicolas Ghesquière) that Daley received.
The young upstart will walk home with a year’s mentorship with LVMH’s team of experts along with €300,000 (approximately $443,758 AUD). Here’s hoping Daley is pouring himself a couple of Armand de Brignac in celebration.
The designer first rose to notoriety after Harry Styles wore several of his pieces, including the extravagant boater hat and floral wide leg trousers, in the ‘Golden’ music video.
Styles’ mastermind stylist, Harry Lambert, has also dressed our favourite pseudo-Royals Emma Corrin and Josh O’Connor in the Liverpool natives creations.
Speaking to press after the prize, Daley remarks that his work has “taken the idea of British heritage, which feels quite antiquated and stuffy, and offered it a new fresh perspective.”
Jonathan Anderson, creative director of LOEWE and JW Anderson, described Daley’s unique gender-fluid and subversive approach to British elitist silhouettes as a new norm for an emerging generation.
Dior’s Maria Grazia Chuiri also added that Daley’s collection was “really well articulated, with knitwear, sportswear, all the categories”. “We think that he can do great things with his brand,” the designer added.
However, the LMVH Prize wasn’t the only award being handed out. For Venice Beach based Eli Russell Linnetz of ERL and Idris Balogun of Winnie New York the event wasn’t all doom and gloom. The two menswear designers shared the Karl Lagerfeld Special Jury Prize, each receiving €150,000 and a year of mentoring.
The 2022 LMVH Prize award had an especially gifted selection of semi-finalists. Former frontrunner Maximilian Davis dropped out of the running earlier this year due to his appointment as Creative Director of Salvatore Ferragamo. ERL even guest-designed a collection with Dior Homme.
This cohort is proving that the future of fashion is in safe hands–and in those that are sustainably minded, gender fluid and oh-so stylish.
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