The shortlist for the 2026 LVMH Prize for Young Fashion Designers crosses eight countries. The September final brings the jury to the Louis Vuitton Foundation in Paris. The headline number is one. Kenya has a name on the list for the first time.
The LVMH Prize is in its thirteenth year. The format is by now well rehearsed. A jury of LVMH creative directors and senior editors reads through roughly two thousand applications, narrows them to a semi-final showroom at La Samaritaine in March, then picks a final shortlist for an autumn public showing. The grand prize this year is four hundred thousand euros and a year of mentorship from LVMH's own teams.
The 2026 final shortlist arrived in April. Nine names, five womenswear-led houses, two unisex and womenswear, and two with men's collections in the mix. The geography spreads from Manhattan to Nairobi, with stops in Sweden, Belgium, Spain, Georgia, France, China and the United Kingdom along the way. The judges have made the global remit visible.
The list
- Colleen Allen · United States · womenswear
- De Pino by Gabriel Figueiredo · France · womenswear
- Institution by Galib Gassanoff · Georgia · womenswear, menswear, unisex
- Julie Kegels · Belgium · womenswear
- Lii by Zane Li · China · womenswear and menswear
- Petra Fagerstrom · Sweden · womenswear
- Ponte by Harry Pontefract · United Kingdom · womenswear and menswear
- THEVXLLEY by Daniel del Valle Fernandez · Spain · unisex
- Yoshita 1967 by Anil Padia · Kenya · womenswear
The Kenyan first
Anil Padia is the founder of Yoshita 1967, a Nairobi house that takes its name from his mother, born in 1967. It is the first time a designer based in Kenya has reached the LVMH Prize final. The clothes are built from East African textiles and embroidery techniques, finished in cuts that have moved through Parisian buyers' showrooms over the past two seasons. The selection is small in number; in symbolism it is a real shift.
The Prize has been edging toward this for a while. African designers reached the long list in earlier editions, often via European-based founders with African heritage. A Nairobi-based maison entering at finalist level is a different proposition. It puts a Kenyan supply chain into a Paris production conversation.
The 2026 LVMH Prize finalists · Courtesy of LVMH
The room
Each finalist is given a stand at the public showroom. Buyers come through, the jury comes through, the press comes through. Past finalists have used the room to land their first stockists; some have left with Tokyo, Paris and New York all on the order book at once. The LVMH commercial team also funnels the finalists into structured retail support for the year after.
Petra Fagerstrom is the Stockholm name on the list, a former pattern cutter who left Acne Studios in 2023 to start her own line. Julie Kegels has been a regular at Antwerp's circuit since graduating from the Royal Academy. Colleen Allen sells out of her New York studio in small drops; the runway shows have been quiet, but the work has moved fast through the editor and stylist networks.
A prize is a door. The houses that win learn to keep the rest of the building functional after the room empties.
The Splendid EditThe jury
The jury at LVMH Prize is the most concentrated room of creative directors fashion runs. Jonathan Anderson (Dior, men's and women's). Nicolas Ghesquiere (Louis Vuitton women's). Pharrell Williams (Louis Vuitton men's). Maria Grazia Chiuri (incoming at Fendi). Sarah Burton (Givenchy). Silvia Venturini Fendi. Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez (incoming at Loewe). Michael Rider (Celine). Stella McCartney. The room is unusually weighted toward the LVMH stable; the Prize is in part a scouting exercise for the group.
Three trophies will be handed out. The grand prize is the LVMH Prize itself, four hundred thousand euros plus a year of mentorship. The Karl Lagerfeld Prize, founded after Lagerfeld's death, carries two hundred thousand euros, with the same mentorship structure. The Savoir-Faire Prize, focused on craftsmanship, is two hundred thousand euros. All three include access to LVMH's marketing, IP and production teams during the prize year.
Atelier · Givenchy · Courtesy of LVMH
The September date
The final is set for September 4 at the Louis Vuitton Foundation in the Bois de Boulogne, the Frank Gehry building Bernard Arnault commissioned in 2014. The nine finalists present in person. The jury picks live. The result is read out the same evening. The timing puts the announcement six days before New York Fashion Week opens, in what is already the start of the spring 2027 show calendar.
The shortlist is conservative in one sense and unusual in the other. The European names are the kind of well-trained graduate pipeline the Prize has always rewarded. The Kenyan name is not. Both readings will hold until the jury settles the matter on the first Friday of September.
The 2026 LVMH Prize winners will be announced on September 4 at the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris.
Photography courtesy of LVMH · 2026 LVMH Prize for Young Fashion Designers