Fashion alumnus Steven Stokey-Daley announced as semi-finalist for the LVMH Prize

The twenty semi-finalists will display their collections and creative worlds in a showroom in Paris at the beginning of March. A panel of leading fashion experts and designers will vote to select the eight finalists. This year’s finalists were selected from over 1,900 candidates from across the globe. Since it’s launch in 2013, the LVMH Prize has helped turn the spotlight on young designers around the world, supporting and accompanying them in the development of their brands.

The diverse nationalities of the candidates highlight the international reach of the LVMH Prize. The 20 semi-finalists hail from Ghent, Lagos, Dublin, Tokyo and beyond. The winner of the LVMH Prize for Young Fashion Designers will receive a €300,000 prize, and one year of mentoring by a dedicated LVMH team.

Westminster alumnus and semi-finalist Steven Stokey-Daley showed at London Fashion Week (LFW) on Friday 18 February, receiving rave reviews. Industry bible WWD reported: “Stokey-Daley showed great promise, not just as a designer, but as an artistic director. His talent in creating an emotional experience around a collection could bring a legacy brand back to life one day.”

Vogue’s Sarah Mower said: “With his saleable clothes, Stokey-Daley is one of the remarkable young phenomenons to have come out of Britain’s lockdown years. In the hands of a fresh generation, London is beginning to look very different now and full of promise.”

Steven follows in the footsteps of Priya Ahluwalia, who graduated from the Menswear MA in 2018 and won the LVMH prize in 2020. Her show at LFW on Saturday 19 February was titled ‘From Nollywood to Bollywood’, and was a sartorial celebration of the cultural significance of films like Kuch Kuch Hota Hai and Games Women Play, as well as the influence they had on the designer growing up.

An in-person showroom of the semi-finalists’ work will take place on March 4-5 in Paris. Here, the international Experts of the Prize, specialists from the world of fashion, will vote for the eight finalists who will be announced later this Spring. The LVMH Prize will be held digitally on the dedicated website, and involve the general public. From March 4-9, a virtual showroom of the designers’ work will take place and the public can vote for their favourite candidate.

Talking about the shortlisting, Professor Andrew Groves, Professor of Fashion Design at the University of Westminster, said: “It's fantastic that Steven has been named as one of the LVMH Prize's shortlisted designers. Steven debuted at London Fashion Week exactly two years ago as part of the Westminster runway show for BA Fashion Design. It's incredible how far he's come since graduating in June 2020, and this is yet another outstanding accomplishment and recognition of his talent."

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