The Prix de l’Andam has a packed calendar for 2024. Nathalie Dufour created and oversaw the fashion competition for young designers, which is commemorating its 35th anniversary with a number of special events and social media material. Anthony Vaccarello, the creative director of Saint Laurent, is sponsoring the prize this year. He will also serve as the jury’s chair and will shortly reveal the makeup of the jury.
Apart from the twenty-two regular jury members who represent the competition’s primary sponsors, Anthony Vaccarello has selected twelve other important individuals. This is the first time a designer has been appointed chairman of the Andam jury; typically, the CEO of one of the participating fashion houses holds this position. “Winner of the Andam prize in 2011, the designer had this nice gesture in this special year, especially as the prize is strongly linked to the house since Pierre Bergé with the Fondation Pierre Bergé – Yves Saint Laurent participated in the creation of this prize in 1989, of which he was the president until 2017,” says Nathalie Dufour.
It resembles an homage to Pierre Bergé’s character. It’s a truly remarkable gesture that truly fits these thirty-five years,” she continues. Additionally, the designer will be creating the competition awards in-house with Swarovski, another one of Andam’s sponsors; typically, the winners from the previous year are given this responsibility.
A celebration of Who’s Next, an Andam partner, and Maxim’s Première Classe salon, which is commemorating its 35th anniversary, will take place on March 1st as part of the anniversary program. In June and July, Galeries-Lafayette, a different partner, will host a tour of the store featuring all of the previous prize winners that are sold there, from Alexandre Mattiussi from Ami to Marine Serre. Guillaume Houzé, the director of image and communications for the company, is also the president of Andam.
Concurrently, under the topic “What have they become?” The Association nationale pour le développement des arts de la mode (Andam) will be sharing images of its previous prize winners on social media and its Instagram account throughout the year.
From Martin Margiela to the most recent winners—including those who are already retired—we have gotten in touch with them all. All of them are still working in the creative industry. José Lévy, for instance, is a furniture designer who was the 1991 winner. The general manager of the competition observes, “We find them in number 1, 2, or 3 studios very often.”
Furthermore, the winners of the past two years will be shown by the Musée des Arts Décoratifs at the end of September, thanks to the symbolic shapes they have made for Andam and have either donated or will donate to the museum in Paris. The general director comments, “It’s interesting to show that contemporary design immediately makes history.”
Stéphane Ashpool will participate.
Not to mention, Stéphane Ashpool, who won the main award in 2015 for designing the French team’s Olympic costumes, will be included in the Andam 2024 celebration schedule. However, Nathalie Dufour is unable to provide us with further information at this time.
This year, Andam received about 350 applications. Half of the initial selection is retained by the organizers. The jury will have to select four finalists from the remaining candidates for the Grand Prix and the Special Prize, almost three for the Pierre Bergé Prize, which honors French and emerging brands and is supported in 2024 by Michael Kliger, CEO of Mytheresa, and three for the Accessories Prize, which is supported this year by Eva Chen, Vice President of Fashion.
Furthermore, the Innovation prize finalists will be chosen by an expert team and announced in May.
The endowment of €700,000 is divided among these four prizes. Though limited in number, the awards are highly valued. The winners gain cross-disciplinary support from all of our partners behind the scenes, and there’s a true springboard effect,” emphasizes Nathalie Dufour. The fashion competition’s finalists and winners will be revealed at the end of May and June 27, respectively.
“Andam has created a unique ecosystem around young designers, with some of the industry’s key players taking an interest in the younger generation and supporting them, both financially and strategically, in terms of image, digital, management and so on,” claims the founder.
“Our other sponsors support the winners of the other prizes, while the partner fashion companies support the Grand Prix winners. Everyone is genuinely committed to the project,” she states.
“Minister Jack Lang requested projects pertaining to the cultural and creative sectors when I was employed at the Ministry of Culture at the end of the 1980s. He made it easier for us to enter. At the time, there existed this transparency. That might not be feasible in the modern day. I founded this organization, and with Pierre Bergé’s help, it was able to flourish,” she says in concluding.
