PARIS — Setchu by Satoshi Kuwata, an industry veteran who has worked for everybody from a Savile Row tailor to luxury sneakers brand Golden Goose, on Wednesday won the 2023 edition of the LVMH Prize for Young Designers at a star-studded ceremony in Paris marking the tenth anniversary of the award. 

Milan-based Kuwata beat some 2,400 applicants from 15 countries to walk away with a grand prize of 400,000 euros, plus a 12 months of coaching from experts at luxury giant LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, parent of brands including Vuitton, Guerlain, Dom Pérignon and Sephora. 

“I used to be a very naughty boy and my mom was really nervous about me, and now I could make my mom really completely happy,” the 39-year-old designer said as he accepted the award.

Israeli actress Gal Gadot revealed the winner at Fondation Louis Vuitton within the presence of a jury featuring star designers Maria Grazia Chiuri, Kim Jones, Nigo, Silvia Venturini Fendi, Stella McCartney, Marc Jacobs, Nicolas Ghesquière and Jonathan Anderson.

Rounding out the group were senior executives Delphine Arnault, the force behind the prize and a key talent scout at LVMH; Sidney Toledano, chairman and chief executive officer of LVMH Fashion Group, and Jean-Paul Claverie, an adviser to LVMH chairman Bernard Arnault and LVMH’s head of corporate philanthropy.

Bettter by Ukrainian designer Julie Pelipas and Italian designer Luca Magliano’s Magliano label were the joint winners of the runner-up Karl Lagerfeld Special Jury Prize, presented by Chinese pop star Xin Liu, who drew a gaggle of screaming fans outside the venue.

Each designers will profit from a grant of 200,000 euros and a one-year mentorship program from the LVMH Group. 

Kuwata, who was born in Kyoto, Japan, and moved to London on the age of 21 to pursue a profession in fashion, launched unisex label Setchu in 2020 after cutting his teeth at Huntsman in Savile Row during his studies at Central Saint Martins; Gareth Pugh in London; Kanye West and Givenchy in Paris; Edun in Recent York City, and Golden Goose in Milan. 

“I desired to do my very own label since I used to be a child, and it was a journey,” he said after taking a break to phone his parents in Japan to inform them the excellent news. “I just went different places because I knew I needed to do this to make a 360-degree design.”

His clothes are grounded in a deep knowledge and respect for various cultures and crafts, leading to the brand’s fusion of Japanese and Western concepts in items like foldable jackets in origami-like constructions. 

Kuwata said what makes his brand “unique” is a mix of artisanal fabrications, a modernist approach linked to his Japanese identity, and functional details inspired by his passion for fishing, which takes him to far-flung destinations like Gabon.

“It’s unattainable to take an enormous suitcase and you furthermore mght must keep an area for fishing gear, but I don’t need to seem like a fisherman wearing nylon garments,” he said, demonstrating how he transforms his ribbed sweater with rows of buttons to wear it three alternative ways.

Having grown up in an area often called the birthplace of Japanese whisky and for its clean water, he is extremely attuned to the environmental impact of his brand and is against runway shows. “It’s not likely sustainable,” he objected. “I feel it’s time to vary.”

Nonetheless, he has old-fashioned ambitions for Setchu. “I would like LVMH to show me the right way to make it a heritage company for the longer term. There will likely be one other part,” he promised.

The designer, who runs his brand solo, plans to rent a team with the ambition of growing his e-commerce activity and launching sneakers, other shoes and purses. “I used to design quite a bit and I’m good at it. It just needed money,” he said.

Chiuri said she was so impressed by Kuwata’s presentation that she slipped on one among his jackets, pronouncing it as well-made as an high fashion creation.

“It’s magnificent. It’s light, it suits well,” she said. “Every little thing was perfect. It’s not only concerning the clothes, it’s more about — in my viewpoint — philosophy, what it means for him to have clothes, maintain your heritage but in a contemporary way, timeless, top quality, occupied with the environment.”

Delphine Arnault, who earlier this 12 months was named chairman and CEO of Christian Dior Couture, said the jury was unanimous. “He did an excellent presentation,” she opined, noting that Kuwata had almost reached the age limit for applicants, although she added: “Mr. Dior began his brand when he was 42, so it gives him hope.”

The LVMH Prize is open to designers under age 40 who’ve presented and sold at the very least two collections of girls’s, men’s or unisex ready-to-wear. Arnault said she was proud to see the way it’s turn out to be an industry reference during the last decade.

“There’s been so many amazing designers who’ve undergone the prize and who’ve developed their profession in an ideal way, be it within the group or not,” she said, reeling off names including Simon Porte Jacquemus, Marine Serre, Steven Stokey-Daley and Grace Wales Bonner.

Not only are more people than ever applying for the prize, however it has modified consistent with the industry’s evolution, reflecting luxury’s move toward genderless creations, streetwear and sustainable designs, Arnault noted. 

Asked why LVMH decided to lift the endowment of the essential prize to 400,000 euros from 300,000 euros previously, and the Karl Lagerfeld prize to 200,000 euros from 150,000 euros, she ventured: “Due to inflation?” The chief made the surprise announcement in the course of the ceremony.

“It hadn’t been raised in a protracted time and I feel that it really helps,” Arnault said, noting that designers struggle with money flow issues because they must advance money for fabrics and production before being paid by wholesale buyers, and likewise need funds to rent staff and hold runway shows. “Most of them have either one or two employees, or zero employees.”

She said it was doubtful whether the prize could evolve in future to incorporate other categories, reminiscent of accessories, noting that it was already very time-consuming. And she or he admitted to feeling a little bit nostalgic for the times when the late Lagerfeld took part in jury deliberations around lunch together with her father, Bernard Arnault.

“I actually miss Karl after I live those moments because he was there since Day One; he was so necessary to the prize,” Arnault reflected. “He was at all times very generous together with his time and his advice.”

Toledano praised this 12 months’s crop for putting the emphasis on sophisticated, wearable designs.

The 2023 edition’s finalists also included U.S.-based brands Luar by Raul Lopez and Diotima by Jamaican designer Rachel Scott; London-based Aaron Esh, and Paolina Russo by Canadian designer Paolina Russo and French designer Lucile Guilmard; Paris-based designer Burç Akyol, and Italian label Quira by Veronica Leoni. 

“We’ve had years when people were more focused on streetwear, but this time we saw the return of silhouettes, elegance and materials,” Toledano said. “Some use recycled materials, others don’t. But globally, they’ve the potential to be great designers.”

Pelipas said she was grateful for the chance to introduce her brand, which is rooted in an upcycling system that reworks secondhand garments and deadstock materials.  

Now based in London in consequence of the Russian invasion of her country, the previous fashion director of Vogue Ukraine is seeking to make connections that may allow the label to scale and turn out to be an answer for the stock currently clogging brands. 

“We’ve a probability to rebuild our system of production and we’ve to think about that and never ignore it as we did before,” she told WWD. “I hope with this instance, the general industry will shift toward upcycling.”

She plans to speculate the prize money into technology. “Right away, we’re in a spot where we’ve all of the essential data, but we want more investment to place it into software and apply it in all of the productions we’re working with.”

Picking up his award, Magliano told the group of industry heavy hitters: “It’s a wonderful feeling to be seen.” His meticulous tackle downbeat, vintage-looking menswear has been gaining traction on the Milan scene, because of the Italian designer’s tailoring and color sense.  

He plans to rent people for his studio in his native Bologna. “We would like to do womenswear. It’s something that we really need to do, so we want to enlarge ourselves,” he said.

Gadot, wearing a black-and-white Dior outfit with stacks of gold Tiffany & Co. bangles, said she was glad to lend visibility to the young designers’ ambitions. “Every time I even have the chance to support the brand new generation, the longer term artists, the longer term talent, I’ll at all times be completely happy to achieve this,” the “Wonder Woman” star told WWD.

As an actress, Gadot is especially sensitive to the facility of garments. “Oh, wow, it’s big. It’s like an element of the personality of the character. It helps construct up and create who the character is, what’s the world she’s living in,” the Tiffany brand ambassador said. “After which on the red carpet, we actually get to have a good time.”

— With contributions from Lily Templeton