International fashion competition, ANDAM has opened its 2020
competition, alongside news that its funding has hit a record 450,000 euro
high for its four prizes.
The aim of ANDAM is to support the French fashion industry, by
supporting emerging talents of contemporary designers, with financial and
strategic support, as well as assuring the role of Paris as a key fashion
capital.
To celebrate and support tomorrow’s designers, ANDAM receives financial
support from DEFI, the Committee for the Promotion and Development of the
French Fashion Industry and the French ministry of Culture, as well as
private sponsors, including Chanel, Chloé, Fondation Pierre Bergé – Yves
Saint Laurent, Galeries Lafayette, Hermès, Kering, Lacoste, Longchamp,
LVMH, OBO, OTB, Premiere Classe, Saint Laurent, Swarovski, and Tomorrow.
In addition, joining ANDAM as backers for 2020 is Google France and the
Jacquard team, offering strategic support in terms of technologic
innovation and communication, as well as L’Oréal Paris, as a strategic
beauty partner.
“Google France is delighted to contribute to the support of the young
creation and French know-how,” said Sebastien Missoffe, vice president and
chief executive, Google France in a statement. “Our French teams will be
happy to mentor the four fellowship winners, by sharing their skills and
expertise.
ANDAM calls for emerging designers to apply for fashion awards
The 2020 competition, which marks the 31st edition, will see Balenciaga
chief executive Cédric Charbit, representing Kering, as the jury president,
and will offer the winner of the ANDAM Grand Prize a year-long mentorship
on both the creative and strategic elements of their business to help them
“establish a global reputation”.
Commenting on being named as jury president, Charbit said: “Creativity
and innovation are the foundations of sustainable success in the fashion
industry and lie at the heart of fashion houses like Balenciaga. As jury
members, we will have the great privilege of identifying and supporting
leading talents of the future and helping them develop their brand with the
unique French savoir-faire.”
The ANDAM Grand Prize, which has been won by Johanna Senyk’s Wanda
Nylon, Y/Project, Antonin Tron, Martin Margiela, Viktor and Rolf, Jeremy
Scott and British designer Gareth Pugh, as well as last year’s recipient,
Christelle Kocher, who founded luxury streetwear business, Koché,
grants a French, or a foreign designer willing to establish a sustainable
business in France, with 250,000 euros.
The other awards include the Pierre Bergé prize, which will reward a
French company with 100,000 euros to give the brand the “means to grow and
reach an international audience”. The winner will also receive year-long
mentoring from Clarisse Reille, DEFI executive director.
While the Fashion Accessories Award will present 50,000 euros to the
winner along with mentoring from Sophie Delafontaine, artistic director at
Longchamp, while the Fashion Innovation Prize will reward an entrepreneur
or start-up willing to develop their innovative and technological solutions
in the fields of fashion design, production and distribution to help
develop an accountable and transparent fashion in France. The winner will
receive 50,000 euros as well as mentorship from Yann Gozlan, founder and
president of Creative Valley.
“This coming decade promises to be very special, a time when
science-fiction comes to reality. Our accessories and clothes are not
anymore a simple and protective skin, revealing our feelings and
personality; They are, and will be more and more, an extension of
ourselves, with the capacity to take care of ourselves, heal us, locate us,
be our living memory, for better and worse,” explains Yann Gozlan, founder
and president of Creative Valley. “In this new world where all the fashion
industry is wondering about its relationship to the world and its footprint
on this fragile Earth that has been entrusted to us, contributing to the
ANDAM Fashion Innovation Prize and following its candidates that we could
support at Station F, is being witness of this history in the making.”
Designers looking to take part in the 2020 edition of ANDAM have until
April 27 to apply, with the finalists selected by the jury expected to be
announced at the end of May, with the winners named on July 2.
Image: courtesy of ANDAM – 2019 winners
