The final of the 13th edition of the LVMH Prize for Young Fashion Designers took place on September 4, 2026, at the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris, closing out a process that began with roughly 2,400 applicants narrowed down to nine finalists back in April. A jury of twelve creative directors, including Jonathan Anderson, Sarah Burton, Maria Grazia Chiuri, Nicolas Ghesquière, Stella McCartney, Nigo, Phoebe Philo, Michael Rider, and Pharrell Williams, alongside special guest juror and Thai actress Urassaya Sperbund, selected the winners across three award categories.
Each winner receives tailored one-year mentorship from LVMH experts covering areas such as production, marketing, and financial management, along with fabric allowances sourced from Nona Source. This platform redistributes deadstock materials from across the luxury conglomerate’s fashion houses. This year’s ceremony leaned heavily on star power to hand out the honors, with Jennifer Lawrence and Priyanka Chopra Jonas both taking the stage to present awards.
LVMH Prize Grand Award Goes to Julie Kegels
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The top honor went to 27-year-old Belgian designer Julie Kegels, founder of her namesake womenswear label, who beat out those 2,400 applicants for the win. Kegels launched her brand in 2024, shortly after graduating from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp, where she trained alongside fellow alumni Walter Van Beirendonck and Dirk Van Saene of the Antwerp Six.
Her work centers on wardrobe archetypes built for a woman moving through different roles across a single day, something she described as designing for someone who can be “a warm mother in the morning, a businesswoman during the day, and at night a social being.” Jennifer Lawrence presented the award, an appearance that briefly went sideways when the actress introduced the ceremony by saying “fascism” instead of “fashion,” drawing laughs from the room before recovering. Kegels takes home a €400,000 EUR (approximately $464,548 USD) endowment along with a €20,000 EUR (approximately $23,227 USD) Nona Source fabric allowance.
Karl Lagerfeld Prize Recognizes Zane Li’s Hybrid Aesthetic
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The Karl Lagerfeld Prize went to 25-year-old Chinese designer Zane Li, founder of the label Lii, which produces both womenswear and menswear. Li graduated from the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York in 2023 and launched his brand shortly after, debuting his first collection for the Fall/Winter 2024 season. His designs blend sportswear construction with couture-level detailing, a blended approach the jury pointed to directly when explaining the win.
Priyanka Chopra Jonas presented the award, which stressed the international reach of Li’s work. The prize includes a €200,000 EUR (approximately $232,270 USD) endowment and a €10,000 EUR (approximately $11,614 USD) fabric allowance, alongside the same year of mentorship extended to the grand prize winner.
Savoir-Faire Prize Honors Anil Padia’s Craft-Led Approach
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Rounding out the major honors, the Savoir-Faire Prize was awarded to 35-year-old Kenyan designer Anil Padia for his womenswear label, Yoshita 1967. Presented by Urassaya Sperbund, the prize recognizes Padia’s artisan as well as community-led approach to fashion, one built around handiwork and local craft traditions rather than industrial production methods.
Padia receives a €200,000 EUR (approximately $232,270 USD) endowment and a €10,000 EUR (approximately $11,614 USD) Nona Source allowance, in line with the structure of the Karl Lagerfeld Prize. He will also receive specialized support through LVMH Métiers d’Excellence, in a dedicated collaboration with the embroidery specialist Maison Vermont, which will contribute €50,000 (approximately $58,068 USD) in embellishment work toward his upcoming collection.
What the 2026 Prize Means for Emerging Designers
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Taken together, the three winners point to where LVMH’s jury independently sees genuine momentum right now, not in a single aesthetic, but in three different approaches sitting side by side. Kegels represents a conceptual, archetype-driven womenswear practice. Li represents the ongoing merger of sportswear and couture that has defined menswear conversations for years. Padia represents a craft- and community-focused model that stands apart from both.
For designers this early in their careers, the mentorship attached to these prizes often matters as much as the money, since it gives small, independent labels access to production, legal, and financial infrastructure that would otherwise take years to build on their own. That support is arguably the more lasting part of what the LVMH Prize offers, long after the ceremony itself fades from the news cycle.
Featured image: Saskia Lawaks
