‘This is when we see their passion’: At the 2024 LVMH Prize semi-final with Delphine Arnault

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The LVMH Prize semi-final is held in a building on the grandest shopping street in all of Paris: Avenue Montaigne. This means that, as they arrive with their collections, each year’s 20-strong crop of hopefuls must pass not only Christian Dior’s original ateliers at number 30 but also towering flagship stores from apex brands, including Louis Vuitton, Loewe, Fendi, Celine and many other fierce commercial rivals in luxury fashion. Mustn’t that be overwhelming?

Thursday, on the first afternoon of 2024’s semi-final, we asked the prize’s founder (and Dior CEO) Delphine Arnault just that question. She answers with an example: “You know, the very first year of the prize, [Simon Porte] Jacquemus was here at this stage. In the end, he didn’t win. But he came back the next year, and won what we used to call the Special Prize, and then became the Karl Lagerfeld Prize. That was 2015.”

She continues: “At the beginning, his brand was really small, but he developed it. And today, he has his own shop on Avenue Montaigne.”

The two-day semi-final is a key stage in the LVMH Prize process and its most social moment. According to Arnault, it is especially crucial because it is the first time the candidates interact in person with the many people involved in deciding the prize. “This is when we see their personality, how they speak, and their passion for the brand — their vision,” she says.

This year, the prize received some 2,500 digital applications. These were whittled down to 20 candidates, of whom this year three were born in the US and the other 17 from different countries around the world. During Thursday and Friday, they stood patiently by their rails as members of the 85-strong expert committee toured the presentation to see their collections and ask them questions. On Thursday night, there was a cocktail event even as the intelligence gathering continued: then, as each committee member left, they handed in their vote for the designer they would most like to see in the final eight-candidate cut.