“It was a really good year. It was actually a year where every single person you believed in, like, really believed in what they were trying to say.” That was Jonathan Anderson minutes after the winners of 12th edition of the 2025 LVMH Prize for young designers had been announced today. “This year was very emotional.”
Of the eight talented finalists—narrowed down from some 2,300 initial applications—three came away as winners. The Grand Prize, a 400,000 euro endowment, was awarded to Soshi Otsuki, founder of the Japanese men’s brand Soshiotsuki. The Karl Lagerfeld Prize went to British designer Steve O Smith, who received 200,000 euros, while the Savoir-Faire Prize, now in its second year, was presented to British designer Torishéju Dumi of Torisheju, who also took home 200,000 euros. Each prize comes with a year of specialized mentorship from LVMH experts. Three fashion school graduates—Louna Clouzel, Sophia Saccetti, and Peiwen Mao—will join the studios of Louis Vuitton Homme, Kenzo, and Dior womenswear, with an additional grant of 10,000 euros given to them and their alma maters.
Taking place in the auditorium of the Fondation Louis Vuitton, the ceremony tends to have a back-to-school feeling, where industry figures from Paris and beyond reunite ahead of fashion month. By afternoon, the finalists—including Alain Paul, Francesco Murano, Tolu Coker, Danial Aitouganov of Zomer, and the duo of Benjamin Barron and Bror August Vestbø who have updated their brand name to August Barron from All-In—had already presented themselves and a selection of looks to the jury of nine LVMH creative directors along with Delphine Arnault, Jean-Pierre Claverie, and Sidney Toledano. The deliberations took place over lunch, with Bernard Arnault in attendance.
As guests began arriving, Julie Gilhart, among the longstanding experts for the prize, mused that this was an overwhelmingly skilled group. “If you closed your eyes and picked, you would be fine.” More telling, she noticed how sustainability has been adopted across the board—and that it’s the key to their individuality. “There’s craft, as always, but I think if you look at everyone, they’re all so different with their strengths and power.”
Once the jury arrived on stage, they appeared like a summit of world leaders. There was Pharrell Williams in a gray Louis Vuitton sweatshirt and drawstring flared sweatpants with his arms outstretched over the shoulders of Anderson and Nigo. Nicolas Ghesquière was dressed in all-over tones of warm white contrasting Phoebe Philo in nearly all black. There were Stella McCartney and Sarah Burton, a new addition now that she is at the helm of Givenchy, plus Sylvia Venturini Fendi and Marc Jacobs who participated in the deliberations but was absent on stage, given the Venice Film Festival premiere of the documentary about him directed by Sofia Coppola.
While Anderson has been on the jury for a decade, this is his first year appearing as creative director of Dior. Actresses and ambassadors Camille Cottin and Anna Sawai, who awarded the Savoir-Faire and Karl Lagerfeld Prize respectively, wore looks featuring lilies of the valley (the muguet was a symbolic flower for Christian Dior). How is he feeling about his women’s debut, “Can’t wait!” he replied.
Deepika Padukone, the famed Bollywood actress and Louis Vuitton ambassador joined the jury as a special guest and presented the main prize. “Bonjour and namaste,” she greeted the crowd. “This award celebrates talent, creativity, and resilience—the very qualities that I would like to believe have guided my own journey as an artist. What I admire most about this prize is that it doesn’t just recognize brilliance, it nurtures it,” she said before reading out Otsuki’s name.
Otsuki’s two male models, standing off to the side of the stage in their double-breasted reconstructed ’80s power suits, were hard to miss. Riffing on the banality of the Japanese ‘salaryman,’ the art of kimonos, and the Italian finesse of Giorgio Armani, the 35-year-old designer arrives at what he described as a silhouette “mismatch” with unique flourishes that clearly impressed the jury.
It could be something as seemingly minor as a slit at the edge of the lapel for the hand to rest in place across the body. “I was interested in this beautiful gesture from a kimono that is accessible from the outside,” he said. Running his brand by himself, he looks forward to expanding his team.
Calling this cohort “a very strong edition,” Venturini Fendi singled out Otsuki’s precision towards materials and proportions. “He’s a very good tailor.” Toledano concurred, intrigued by this twist on Armani and American Gigolo. “Suddenly these men’s looks capture the spirit of the moment.”
Steve O Smith, meanwhile, creates incredibly striking designs that originate from drawings, such that gestures in ink wash become one-of-a-kind dresses and tailoring as trompe l’œil placements of transparent and opaque fabric. At the event, Natalia Vodianova was wearing one of his dresses, which are instantly identifiable. Lagerfeld, of course, drew incessantly, which made Smith’s prize a fitting homage.
“There’s an irony as well, because he had a lot of opinions about people calling fashion ‘art’ and that’s something I come across a lot,” Smith pointed out. “He had a sense of humor and would have found that quite funny.” He noted that although his brand has been “cash positive” for a year since clients pay 50 percent up front, he is most looking forward to investing in machinery such as a suction table and pattern table and updating his dress forms. Smith also previewed his foray into color and beading. “It’s very beautiful and you can see his evolution,” said Venturini Fendi.”
Smith, 33, and Dumi, 32, completed their MA at Central Saint Martins one year apart, not knowing each other at the time but bonding during this process. “This experience has brought us so close together,” she said. “All these designers are bloody phenomenal.”
She accepted her framed award, thanking “the Arnault family,” and turned her back to the audience as she acknowledged the jury and named her nearest and dearest between sobs of joy. “This means the world to me.” Shortly after, as the crowd began to disperse, she stood in the auditorium and called her mother. “I won, mummy,” to more happy tears. Pieces from her first two collections have already been acquired by the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum and the Victoria Albert Museum.
“It means we’re a part of history and I’m all about preserving history and understanding it; that’s me as a person,” she said, standing next to what looked like a mini black tutu puffed up with white poplin and tulle that was actually a Titanic reference (imagine all those period gowns ballooning atop the water before sinking). Don’t be surprised to see her experimenting with more ornate surface treatments in future collections; the Savoir-Faire Prize comes with 50,000 euros of embellishments from embroidery specialist Maison Vermont via support from LVMH Métiers d’Excellence.
With so many blockbuster debuts on the horizon, Delphine Arnaut, who continues to oversee the Prize alongside her role as CEO of Dior, noted how cultivating the next wave of talent has been integral to the initiative all along. “We feel it’s our responsibility to be the leader of our industry, to identify young talents and help them grow without anything in exchange.” She added that the mentorship (Otsuki, specifically, will work with Loewe CEO, Pascale Lepoivre) plays out according to each designer. “Some of them need advice on pricing, others on intellectual property,” she explained. “Some need help on production, others on accounting. But most of them have super-small teams—many jobs run by one person—versus a more mature company.”
Beyond building their own brands, LVMH Prize finalists become attractive to houses in search of a new creative director. See Rachel Scott, a 2023 finalist who was named creative director of Proenza Schouler this week, or Duran Lantink who won the Karl Lagerfeld Prize last year, and was appointed the creative director of Jean Paul Gaultier in April.
Dumi admitted that she would be open to the right opportunity. What is her ultimate dream? “Well, I have to start dreaming again. Because this was a dream, and now I have accomplished this dream. So I am rejigging the whole dream process.”
