PARIS — The late Gaby Aghion, who founded Chloé in 1952 and recruited an array of Left Bank designers including Maxime de la Falaise, Gérard Pipart and Karl Lagerfeld, is remembered as a mentor extraordinaire.
The legacy continues: Now in its 27th edition, ANDAM will today name Chloé a new sponsor of the 2016 fashion competition and Geoffroy de la Bourdonnaye, its chairman and chief executive officer, as the winner’s designated mentor.
“Always finding new talents is the essence of the Chloé maison,” said de la Bourdonnaye, who plans to put his entire leadership team at the disposal of the victor, who pockets a cash award of 250,000 euros, or $270,750 at current exchange rates.
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The mentorship spans two years of guidance on matters including financial, legal, marketing, communications and production. De la Bourdonnaye lauded ANDAM for giving young talents the tools to propel businesses that are already showing traction — and for shining a spotlight on a flourishing creative industry amid economic gloom and lingering fallout from the November terror attacks in Paris.
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In addition to the main award is the First Collections Prize, valued at 100,000 euros, or $108,300, and the Accessories Award, which comes with a grant of 40,000 euros, or $43,300.
Nathalie Dufour, ANDAM founder and director, said the winner of the First Collections prize would also receive mentoring from Galeries Lafayette “to help him or her master the construction of the collection in terms of products and merchandising.”
She noted that designers — no matter how creative or committed to quality — “sometimes lack the notion of the rigorous merchandising codes of a department store.”
In addition, the Institut Français de la Mode, or IFM, is offering finalists of the First Collections and Accessorize prizes access to an 18-month training program covering such topics as identity, supply chain, production, image and communication.
MAC Cosmetics, Swarovski, Tomorrow London and the Maison du Savoir-Faire et de la Création are also offering assistance, monitoring, mentorship and workshop access to winners and finalists.
Moncler has joined a consortium of sponsors that include Chanel, Pierre Bergé-Yves Saint Laurent Foundation, Kering, Longchamp, LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, Yves Saint Laurent and OTB.
Remo Ruffini, chairman and ceo of Moncler, said it is “essential” to support creativity, which should be “recognized and rewarded, especially among emerging designers, who will be the protagonists of the future.”
“Over the past four years, the mentorship has become as important as the prize money,” Dufour said. “They benefit from a one-on-one relationship with the highest level of expertise, and very often, it turns into a real long-term friendship.”
She noted that Kering chief executive officer François-Henri Pinault, who mentored 2014 winner Iris Van Herpen, “is still helping to run her business and her production. They have introduced her to the best of the French traditional industries like Montex and Lesage, and they are now opening for her the doors of French high-tech companies.”
Likewise, Bruno Pavlovsky, president of Chanel fashion, who is mentoring Stephane Ashpool from Pigalle, connected him to three Chanel-owned specialty ateliers, allowing him to include pieces made by pleating specialist Lognon, feather house Lemarié and the embroider Lesage in his fall men’s wear show.
The French acronym for the National Association for the Development of the Fashion Arts, ANDAM is welcoming applications from today until April 15, with the jury members revealed in March and the finalists in May. Winners are to be unveiled on July 1.
Founded in 1989 by Dufour with the support of the French government and with former YSL couture boss Bergé as president, ANDAM has been a springboard for an array of designers who would go on to achieve international recognition, including Martin Margiela, Viktor & Rolf, Christophe Lemaire and Jeremy Scott. De la Bourdonnaye noted that 2002 laureate Tom Van Lingen works alongside creative director Clare Waight-Keller in the Chloé design studio.
Awards, funds and initiatives aiding young designers have recently become an intense focus for Europe’s big luxury players and trade bodies, with LVMH in 2014 introducing an international prize involving business coaching.