S.S. Daley Wins The LVMH Prize, ERL And Winnie New York Are Runners Up

Steven Stokey-Daley of S.S. Daley won the LVMH Prize, awarded today in Paris at the Fondation Louis Vuitton. Presented by Cate Blanchett, the award comes with a year of mentorship and a cash prize of 300,000 euros. “Oh no, I’m going to cry,” Stokey-Daley said, as he accepted the award from Blanchett, quickly adding with a smile, “This is like an Oscar actually, Cate.” Stokey Daley thanked the LVMH jury, his peers, his family, and supporters including journalist Sarah Mower and stylist Harry Lambert. He closed his speech with a genuine exclamation: “I’m overwhelmed!”

Stokey-Daley is a graduate of the Westminster School of Art in the United Kingdom who got the world’s attention when Harry Styles wore a shirt from his graduate menswear collection for his “Golden” music video in 2020. Support from Lambert, Styles’s stylist, helped place Stokey-Daley’s garments on other clients like Emma Corrin and Josh O’Connor. The designer staged his first runway show at London Fashion Week for the fall 2022 season and previously collaborated with the National Youth Theatre on a performance in 2021.

Balogun also thanked the LVMH jury and Delphine Arnault, adding a special shout-out to his family, members of whom were in the room. “I want to thank my Mom, and I want to thank my brothers in the back – it’s been an amazing journey,” he said. Raised in London, Balogun studied at New York’s Fashion Institute of Technology and held design director jobs at Burberry and Tom Ford before launching his own brand in 2018.

The Karl Lagerfeld Prize went to two designers this year, “due to the exceptional quality of the competition”, said the presenter, the Olympian Eileen Gu. The prizes were awarded to Eli Russell Linnetz of ERL and Idris Balogun of Winnie New York. “Thank you guys so much, thank you to LVMH, Delphine, the Arnault family, all the judges, my family, and Rennie,” said Linnetz, who most recently collaborated with Dior Men on a capsule collection show in his hometown of Venice Beach, California. Self-trained as a designer and a screenwriting graduate of the University of Southern California, Linnetz’s relaxed clothing is backed by Dover Street Market Paris and worn by the likes of A$AP Rocky, and Hailey Bieber. As a photographer, stage designer, and director, he has worked with Ye, Lady Gaga, Teyana Taylor, and Selena Gomez, among others.