PARIS — LGN Louis-Gabriel Nouchi beat five other finalists to attain the grand prize of the 2023 edition of the ANDAM Fashion Award.

The winner, who receives 300,000 euros and a 12 months of coaching from Chloé chief executive officer Riccardo Bellini, was revealed at an open-air ceremony within the gardens of the Palais-Royal in Paris on Thursday night.

Paris-based Nouchi, who sought to redefine male sensuality together with his spring 2024 collection inspired by the 1964 novel “A Single Man” and presented on June 22, proposes gender-fluid collections with a literary inspiration, prioritizing the usage of fabrics with low environmental impact, natural dyes and buttons and labels fabricated from recycled plastic.

Asked what he would spend money on first, the newly minted winner deadpanned “holidays,” before explaining that the award and adjoining purse money had landed at a vital juncture for his six-year-old label as its expansion accelerates.

“I think we sustain and underwrite growth with values by way of real social and environmental responsibility,” he said. “Our challenges this 12 months are logistics, packaging, storage — not glamorous but that’s where we will have real impact on a capitalist model and show it’s profitable with these values inbuilt.”

Nouchi hopes to rent latest staff while promoting existing employees, in addition to broach topics like marketing and a web site revamp.

After what Bellini described was a tricky session debating the merits of a “very unique” choice of finalists, he said the “unprecedented within the history of the ANDAM” decision had been taken to award two runner-up prizes.

“This places the ANDAM as one of the crucial powerful, productive, effective platforms — ecosystems — to support creativity,” Bellini said.

Ester Manas and Duran Lantink each received the Special Prize, established in 2022. Each will receive a money award of 100,000 euros plus coaching from Frédéric Maus, general director of Première Classe organizer WSN Développement.

The previous is the Brussels-based label founded by Manas and Delepierre, working size-inclusive designs mainly with deadstock fabrics.

Lantink, who is predicated in Amsterdam and has since moved to Paris, made an off-calendar Paris debut last February showcasing polished twists on his knack for upcycling designer clothing from older seasons, cutting up pieces from different brands and putting them back together. 

“I feel excited,” said Lantink, whose elation was mixed with exhaustion. “It’s so nerve-racking and it’s form of, I don’t know, a day looks like yesterday, or a 12 months ago. But I feel very comfortable that I actually have the support and just can proceed my journey in Paris.”

He plans to make use of the prize money to establish a everlasting presence within the French capital.

“I would like to go more into sustainable materials and I would like to maneuver to Paris, so this is basically helpful to establish a studio, expand my team,” said Lantink, who hopes to indicate his spring 2024 collection on the official calendar next fall. “We’re very busy with that, doing a variety of upcycling, recycling, deadstock and all these sorts of things.”

Manas and Balthazar said the win felt especially good after a season that saw brands taking a step backward by way of size diversity on the runways.

“We were scared, however the industry said yes, in a way. This can be a real recognition, and so they’re giving us the keys to the castle,” Manas said. “One, that offers us fresh confidence. Two, it’s fuel for what comes next. Three, it proves we weren’t improper. And 4, it also proves that folks fought for us. They gave out two special prizes, so there was disagreement.”

Manas was pleased that their work was scary debate. “Creating fashion without meaning not is smart. So I’m going to sleep well tonight, in every sense of the term, and by way of our day-to-day operations, this money is a breath of fresh air, because being a young brand today is just not at all times easy,” she said.

“I’m comfortable to find a way to go home and tell my family, ’See mom, I used to be right,’” she said.

The opposite finalists were GmbH’s Benjamin Huseby and Serhat Isik; Marie-Christine Statz of Paris-based label Gauchere, and Italian designer Andrea Adamo’s Andreadamo label.

Candidates for ANDAM’s grand prize will be of any nationality, but must own a French company or set one up in the course of the same 12 months because the receipt of the fellowship.

Avellano by Arthur Avellano, which makes a speciality of latex creations, won the Pierre Bergé Prize, which focuses on young French corporations and is value 100,000 euros.

“Latex pays off,” he said with obvious relish, feeling validated in a 10-year journey that began when he was a student on the Beaux-Arts.

“For years, I used to be told to stop since it was too sticky, it didn’t work but I’m someone who could be very stubborn. But after some time, you understand it pays off and you will have to maintain going regardless that it’s demanding, you don’t sleep at night, you lose money,” he continued, reminding that his signature material is plant-based and most significantly, “cool.”

The opposite two contenders for that prize were Ouest Paris, a Paris-based menswear label founded by former Ami designer Arthur Robert, and Vaillant, designed by Alice Vaillant, known for lingerie-inspired camisole tops and slip dresses worn by the likes of Kylie Jenner and Rita Ora.

Ukrainian milliner Ruslan Baginskiy, whose hats are featured in Beyoncé’s “Renaissance” tour, won the Accessories Prize, now valued at 100,000 euros, up from 50,000 euros previously.

The moment felt surreal for the Kyiv-based designer, provided that he and his team “live in total bipolarity” between the style circuit and their war-torn homeland. “This shows people in my country that all the pieces is feasible and that’s an enormous thing, especially now,” greater than 16 months after the beginning of Russia’s attack on Ukraine, he said.

He was still weighing the opportunities that lay ahead of him, whether it was opening a store in Paris, “his big dream,” or expanding on his presentations. But there was one opportunity he missed because he was busy fielding interviews — a selfie with 2023 jury member Gigi Hadid.

The opposite two accessories finalists were Alighieri, the London-based jewelry label founded by Rosh Mahtani, and Paris-based jewelry brand Panconesi by Italian designer Marco Panconesi, who moonlights as design director at Swarovski.

With Chloé’s Bellini as this 12 months’s mentor, designers needed to show a robust sense of social responsibility to wow a jury that included Quannah Chasinghorse-Potts, American model and land protector for the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge; Mexican climate activist Xiye Bastida, and Trisha Shetty, human rights campaigner and founding father of SheSays, an Indian NGO working to advertise gender equality.

Hadid and fellow model Pat Cleveland were also guest jurors for this edition, as was Iranian-born actress and director Zar Amir Ebrahimi, who won the Best Actress award on the Cannes Film Festival last 12 months for her role in “Holy Spider.”

Although five brands walked away with gongs, all 12 finalists may have access to deadstock materials provided by Balenciaga and Longchamp, while OTB will run a workshop on best practices in sustainable design.

They can even be showcased at WSN and Première Classe’s trade shows. France-based finalists may have privileged access to the accelerator program of the Institut Français de la Mode, and financial advice from the Institute for the Financing of Cinema and the Cultural Industries, which supports cultural industries in France.

Created in 1989 by Nathalie Dufour with the support of the French Ministry of Culture and the DEFI, a body that promotes the event of the French fashion industry, and with the late Pierre Bergé as president, ANDAM has been a springboard for designers who would go on to attain international recognition.

Past winners include Viktor & Rolf, Christophe Lemaire, Jeremy Scott and Marine Serre. British menswear designer Bianca Saunders scooped the 2021 prize, while Botter, designed by Lisi Herrebrugh and Rushemy Botter, scored the highest gong last 12 months.

ANDAM — the French acronym for National Association of the Development of the Fashion Arts — is supported by large corporate sponsors, which now include Balenciaga, Chanel, Chloé, Fondation Pierre Bergé-Yves Saint Laurent, Galeries Lafayette, Google, Hermès, Instagram, Kering, Lacoste, Longchamp, LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, L’Oréal Paris, Mytheresa, OTB, Premiere Classe, Saint Laurent, Swarovski and Tomorrow.

The French Ministry of Culture and the DEFI, a body that promotes the event of the French fashion industry, are also key historic public partners of ANDAM.

Executives from most sponsors comprise everlasting members of the jury, and Glenn Martens, Y/Project and Diesel creative director, served on behalf of OTB.