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The LVMH Prize semi-final is held in a constructing on the grandest buying avenue in all of Paris: Avenue Montaigne. Because of this, as they arrive with their collections, annually’s 20-strong crop of hopefuls should move not solely Christian Dior’s authentic ateliers at quantity 30 but additionally towering flagship shops from apex manufacturers, together with Louis Vuitton, Loewe, Fendi, Celine and lots of different fierce business rivals in luxurious style. Mustn’t that be overwhelming?

Thursday, on the primary afternoon of 2024’s semi-final, we requested the prize’s founder (and Dior CEO) Delphine Arnault simply that query. She solutions with an instance: “, the very first yr of the prize, [Simon Porte] Jacquemus was right here at this stage. Ultimately, he didn’t win. However he got here again the subsequent yr, and gained what we used to name the Particular Prize, after which turned the Karl Lagerfeld Prize. That was 2015.”

She continues: “In the beginning, his model was actually small, however he developed it. And right this moment, he has his personal store on Avenue Montaigne.”

The 2-day semi-final is a key stage within the LVMH Prize course of and its most social second. In line with Arnault, it’s particularly essential as a result of it’s the first time the candidates work together in individual with the many individuals concerned in deciding the prize. “That is once we see their character, how they converse, and their ardour for the model — their imaginative and prescient,” she says.

This yr, the prize obtained some 2,500 digital functions. These had been whittled down to twenty candidates, of whom this yr three had been born within the US and the opposite 17 from completely different international locations around the globe. Throughout Thursday and Friday, they stood patiently by their rails as members of the 85-strong skilled committee toured the presentation to see their collections and ask them questions. On Thursday evening, there was a cocktail occasion even because the intelligence gathering continued: then, as every committee member left, they handed of their vote for the designer they’d most wish to see within the remaining eight-candidate reduce.