The prestigious French fashion award, ANDAM, released a list of finalists for its 32nd edition on Thursday. The 14 selected designers share the creativity and boundary-pushing spirit that keep the world of fashion and design moving forward – along with powerful inclusivity and sustainability that are at the center of today’s fashion scene.

 

There are three categories for which a designer can be nominated for: fashion, creative-label and accessories.

 

Here are the nominees for each:

 

ANDAM Grand Prize, worth €300K:

AREA – New York City-based label founded by Beckett Fogg and Piotrek Panszczyk, that has gained a cult following for its timeless take on beauty and glamour.

Bianca Saunders – designs that address the tensions between tradition and evolution through streetwear and avant-garde couture inspired pieces, reshaping the menswear landscape.

Casablanca – après-sport fashion house created by Charaf Tajer. Read more about the designer’s most recent collection here.

GmbH – streetwear aesthetic fashion label from Berlin, founded by Benjamin Huseby and Serhat Isik, challenging today’s culture of overconsumption with their design.

Ludovic de Saint Sernin – based in Brussels, this designer makes pieces “for guys and girls, with many pieces designed without one gender in mind.”

Rokh – a London based fashion house, founded by Rok Hwang, is a conceptual art form of fashion focusing on youth culture and blending the masculine and the feminine.

Wales Bonner – taking a mixed European and Afro-Atlantic approach to fashion, Grace Wales Bonner’s menswear and womenswear have gone international in recent years.

 

Pierre Berge Prize, worth €100K:

Charles de Vilmorin

EGONlab.

Ester Manas

UNIFORME

 

Accessories Prize, worth €50K:

Aswad

PUBLISHED BY

Samuel François

 

For the first time in the award’s history, the 7 Grand Prize finalists will also have the opportunity to meet the OTB Group’s specialists in several fields, including marketing, production, distribution, sustainability and digitization. 

 

“The richness and diversity of the candidacies received illustrate a strong global and creative energy and confirm the attractiveness of Paris, where all these talents want to converge,” said Nathalie Dufour, founder and director of ANDAM.

 

The nominees will present their projects to a panel of judges on July 1. The winners will be selected that day, based on both creative and business potentials, and will be given financial and logistic support from experts in the field to help them structure and expand their businesses.

 

Founded in 1989 by Dufour and chaired by Guillaume Houzé, the ANDAM fashion awards are a joint partnership between the French Ministry of Culture and DEFI, the Committee for the Promotion and Development of the French Fashion Industry. Private sponsors include Chanel, Balenciaga, Yves Saint Laurent, Chloé, Hermes, and several other luxury designer labels.

 

“In France, fashion belongs to our cultural heritage and makes our national pride,” said Roselyne Bachelot-Narquin, the French Minister of Culture, expressing the Ministry’s support for the awards. “Fashion and society are closely related: while accompanying the changes in our society, fashion with its subversive force can also initiate them.”