PARIS — The sight of designer Doo-Ri Chung skidding into the recent Swiss Textiles Award gala straight off the plane after winning first prize at the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund Awards in New York said it all: Big-bucks fashion awards have become a vital and coveted lifeline for young designers, who typically walk the make-or-break tightrope.
And the odds of winning a fashion lottery are increasing, given the proliferation of new initiatives in support of emerging talent.
These include El Botón (The Button) — Mango Fashion Awards, a 300,000 euro prize ($385,000) to be awarded in September; the Chambre Syndicale’s “En Avant Premiere,” an online program launched last month to help designers secure wholesale orders, and the forthcoming online fashion community Iqons, a MySpace-like resource to boost the businesses and profiles of emerging talents.
Chung, a rising designer in the U.S. and South Korea, said she viewed her invitation to compete for the Swiss prize as a vital stepping stone to greater visibility, having had little exposure in Europe. The contest offers a prize worth 100,000 euros, or around $128,000, for brand development, plus 10,000 euros, or about $12,800, in vouchers for Swiss textiles.
Along with events such as London’s Fashion Fringe, which this year appointed Tom Ford its honorary chairman, the Swiss gala is leveraging its international profile. This year’s panel was presided by Style.com’s Laird Borrelli, with Harrods’ Suzanne Tide-Frater, Paris retailer Maria Luisa Poumaillou and the Musée des Arts Decoratif’s Pamela Golbin among nominators and jury members. Like her fellow nominees Jonathan Saunders, Ann-Valerie Hash, Kaviar Gauche, Kim Jones and Bruno Pieters, Chung said she was more than willing to forfeit some editorial credits and schlep her collection to Zurich for the judges’ appraisal.
Pieters, the event’s winner, deemed getting exposure as one of the hardest challenges for a young designer and therefore equated the prize with survival. “I couldn’t afford a catwalk show [in October], but I’ll be back in action for March,” he said.
The award certainly proved fruitful for last year’s winner, fellow Belgian designer Christian Wijnants, who also recently scooped up a 55,000 euro, or approximately $70,000, Andam award, sponsored by the Fondation Pierre Bergé and Yves Saint Laurent, YSL and Japanese department store Beams. He used the double windfall to finance a full-scale fashion show last October in Paris.
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“It meant access to great models, a better location, more outfits — a more professional event,” said Wijnants. He was also able to take on an assistant and access higher quality textiles and production facilities.
Besides prizes, emerging designers also rely on design collaborations — often done anonymously — to keep the wolves from the door.
Such collaborations can pull in up to 50,000 euros, or $65,000, enough to finance a fashion show. Wijnants said such projects helped keep him afloat and the awards, which stoked press coverage and edged him under the nose of new retailers, have raised his profile. For example, the Royal Windsor Hotel in Brussels approached him to design a room. He’s also in talks with undisclosed Swiss and British brands to design signature ready-to-wear and sports lines.
Meanwhile, Paris-based Ann-Valerie Hash, who plans to launch a men’s wear line, disclosed she’s in talks to develop an evening line for an undisclosed Italian house, while British designer Jonathan Saunders has collaborated on a hand-printed bag line for luggage firm Globetrotter. The bags will be launched via exclusives to high-end stores such as Harrods and Colette this spring.
Likewise, Berlin brand Kaviar Gauche has designed a bag line for German beauty brand Dr. Hauschka to be launched in February. Having won this year’s On/Off Visionary Award also meant being able to show at On/Off during London Fashion Week last September. “It’s through events such as this that we’re able to be seen,” said co-designer Johanna Kühl.
Fashion awards are hardly a new phenomenon, with Yves Saint Laurent and Karl Lagerfeld having shared the first prize for a fashion contest held by the International Wool Secretariat back in 1953. But given heightened interest in on-the-cusp designers, a broader slate of players are positioning themselves as springboards for tomorrow’s talent.
Federico Marchetti, founder of Yoox.com and a jury member at the Swiss Textiles Awards, said selling emerging labels can be a point of differentiation for retailers. For example, Yoox plans to sell Fashion Fringe’s current winner Gavin Douglas’ collection at the end of February.
And since launching “The Wild Bunch” in 2004, geared to young designer collaborations, the site has featured clothes by Alexandre Herchcovitch, Hamish Morrow and Bernhard Willhelm, whose unisex collection earlier this year boasted 70 percent sell-through in two weeks. Jeremy Scott’s Tabloid collection will be featured starting next month.
Topshop’s buying director Caren Downie, who sits on the jury of the Topshop-sponsored New Generation event launched in 1993, said emerging designers are enjoying a new level of popularity among fashion insiders and the buying public alike. “We’re constantly surprised by how excited our customers are at discovering new brands. It signifies a new level of buying maturity,” she said.
However, some warn that prizes can be a glorifying detour from any meaningful investment.
“Companies are afraid to invest in fashion houses. What designers need is financing and that’s hard to find,” said Linda Loppa, founder of the Flanders Fashion Institute of Antwerp. She noted a program called Flanders Investment & Trade that aids various Belgian designers with their showrooms, shows and look books, as well as investor Anne Chapelle, who backs Belgian designers such as Ann Demeulemeester and Haider Ackerman.
During next Paris Fashion Week, Flanders Fashion Institute will also introduce its first showroom introducing young graduates from Flanders.
While designers often view awards as a means to mounting fashion shows, Loppa said she suggests they funnel funds toward production and showrooms.
“If orders are written during the first showrooms, a company can grow. If not, they have to invest a second time and costs leap tremendously,” said Loppa, adding that reliable deliveries are also the key to success. “First in store, first sold out,” she stressed.
“The logic is to take orders, be safe and have enough to eat; to take care of buyers, then support the consumers who believe in you,” agreed Didier Grumbach, president of the Chambre Syndicale.
Prompted by an unprecedented number of designers jostling for a space in Paris’ jam-packed calendar, Grumbach launched the “En Avant Premiere” initiative last October. Designers are invited to feature images of their collection on the Chambre Syndicale Web site during Paris rtw with a view to securing appointments with buyers. Then during couture week in January, those designers who made enough orders are invited to put on a show.
“Showing after sales have been placed is infinitely less risky,” said Grumbach, adding that for many designers the “catch-22” is that they sell well, but then lack the investment to develop further. “There’s no credit system set up for designers. And the more one sells, the more capital is needed to produce the collection,” said Grumbach.
Still, he painted a positive outlook for emerging designers. “Suddenly designers are in and fashion is in, which isn’t always the case,” said Grumbach, noting that every 10 to 15 years, an important new pack of designers emerges. “And when it happens, you have to take note,” he said. “It’s the little streams that make big rivers.”