Botter, designed by Lisi Herrebrugh and Rushemy Botter, beat seven finalists to score the grand prize of the 2022 ANDAM Fashion Award.
The winner, who receives 300,000 euros and a year of coaching from Chanel’s Bruno Pavlovsky, was revealed at an open-air ceremony in the gardens of the Palais-Royal in Paris on Thursday night.
Herrebrugh and Botter, who were also artistic directors of Nina Ricci until earlier this year, tap into their roots — Curaçao on his side, and the Dominican Republic on hers — for their gender-fluid clothing rooted in Caribbean culture.
London-based womenswear brand Robert Wun, the subject of a recent exhibition at the Savannah College of Art and Design’s museum in Atlanta, received the Special Prize, which comes with a cash award of 100,000 euros plus coaching both on the creative and strategic dimensions of his fledgling businesses. The runner-up award is new to the 2022 edition, reflecting the generosity of new and established sponsors and recognizing the strength of the high-caliber talents the awards have been attracting recently.
The other finalists were: Berlin-based womenswear label Ottolinger, established by Swiss-born designers Christa Bösch and Cosima Gadient; Copenhagen’s Heliot Emil, which was founded by brothers Victor and Julius Juul in 2016 as a menswear brand and has since expanded to womenswear; South Africa-based Lukhanyo Mdingi, who designs menswear; Thomas Monet’s gender-fluid Cool TM brand; and womenswear designer Peter Do, who previously worked at Celine under Phoebe Philo and is based in New York City.
Candidates for ANDAM’s grand prize can be of any nationality, but must own a French company or set one up during the same year as the receipt of the fellowship.
Bluemarble Paris, a Paris-based menswear label founded by designer Anthony Alvarez, won the Pierre Bergé Prize, which focuses on young French companies and is worth 100,000 euros.
The other two contenders from that prize were: Benjamin Benmoyal, who makes clothes from deadstock fabrics and recycled materials like VHS cassette tapes, and Boyarovskaya, created by designer Maria Boyarovskaya and fashion photographer Artem Kononenko.
Paris-based jewelry designer Dolly Cohen, who has created grills for celebrities including Rihanna, won the Accessories Prize, valued at 50,000 euros.
The other two accessories nominees were: 13 09 SR, the brand cofounded by former Carven designer Serge Ruffieux that launched last year with flat shoes and bejeweled eyewear, and London-based Romanian designer Ancuta Sarca, whose creations meld sportswear and high fashion.
Created in 1989 by Nathalie Dufour with the support of the French Ministry of Culture and the DEFI, a body that promotes the development 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 achieve international recognition.
Past winners include Viktor & Rolf, Christophe Lemaire, Jeremy Scott and Marine Serre. British menswear designer Bianca Saunders scooped the 2021 prize.
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 development of the French fashion industry, are also key historic public partners of ANDAM.
Executives from most sponsors comprise permanent members of the jury.
Many of this year’s guest jury members were drawn from Chanel’s orbit, including model and music producer Caroline de Maigret; twin sisters Lisa-Kaindé Diaz and Naomi Diaz of musical duo Ibeyi; choreographer Blanca Li; rapper Abd al Malik; model, DJ and singer Soo Joo Park, and Miren Arzalluz, director of the Palais Galliera fashion museum.
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