Woolmark Prize reveals next edition’s 10 finalists

By

Chenu Alexis

Translated by
Nicola Mira

Published
Oct 29, 2019

The next Woolmark Prize, the prestigious international fashion design competition organised by Australia’s Woolmark Company, will be awarded at the London Fashion Week in February 2020, the new recipients succeeding 2019 winners Edward Crutchley and Colovos.

The 10 finalists have now been announced, among them several labels and emerging designers already featured in some of the leading fashion weeks. The shortlist includes Swedish label Namacheko, by Dilan and Lezan Lurr, which has been showing in Paris for several seasons; German design collective GmbH, also showing in Paris; Botter, the label by design duo Rushemy Botter and Lisi Herrebrugh, who since 2018 have also been the creative directors of Nina Ricci.
 
From the UK, British designer Samuel Ross and his edgy label A-Cold Wall, which shows in London; Feng Chen Wang, the London-based Chinese designer at the head of the eponymous label; and Irish-born designer Richard Malone, who also shows in London.

Hailing from the USA, Bode and its designer Emily Bode, who presented her collection in Paris for the first time last June, and Matthew Adams Dolan, whose mixed-gender collections feature at the New York Fashion Week.

Finally, Blindness, by South Korean designers Kyu Yong Shin and Jong Taek Lee, who launched their label in 2012, and Ludovic de Saint Sernin, winner of the ANDAM Prize in 2018, which staged its maiden show in Paris last June, the only French label in the shortlist. 
 
The Woolmark Prize winner will benefit from a mentoring and support programme and earn a cash prize of AUD200,000 (approximately €125,000). Another cash prize of AUD100,000 (€62,000) will go to the label “demonstrating outstanding innovation in product or manufacturing.” The winner's collection will be commercialised from September 2020 on Mytheresa.com and Matchesfashion.com, and will also be distributed by Takashimaya, Lane Crawford and David Jones.
 
This year, the revamped Woolmark Prize will have an almost entirely new advisory council, which will be joined by prestigious names like Indian designer Manish Arora and New York designer Kate Young.