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Emerging British label S.S. Daley won the LVMH Prize for 2022, securing a cash prize of €300,000 for founder Steven Stokey-Daley as well as a year of mentorship by executives at luxury’s biggest conglomerate.
Stokey-Daley has become a breakout fashion star as his romantic, contemporary twist on British dress codes gained traction, with the likes of pop singer Harry Styles sporting his super-wide-legged canvas trousers and a dried-flower headress from the designer in a 2020 music video. Since then his label has been picked up by e-tailers Ssense and Matchesfashion, and he’s staged fashion shows incorporating socially-engaged performances that explored class and coming-of-age in British society.
“This just feels like the highest form of validation ever,” Daley told reporters following the prize ceremony.
The designer said he looked forward to having “mentorship to manage growth,” as he sought to establish the right mix between direct-to-consumer and wholesale channels.
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He said he planned to expand his ultra-small team, starting with help on e-commerce, inventories and fulfilment. “I’ve really just been doing it all myself,” he admitted.
LVMH also honoured two American labels, granting its Karl Lagerfeld prize (an award for runners-up dedicated to the late designer) to ERL and Winnie New York.
At the ceremony, ERL’s founder Eli Russell Linnetz spoke about drawing on his background as a filmmaker to emphasise the narrative dimension of fashion. His Venice Beach-based brand has become known for colourful, nostalgia-soaked twists on American fashion codes, and recently collaborated with Dior Homme.
Winnie New York’s founder Idris Balogun — a Nigerian-born designer known for mixing Savile Row tailoring with international cultural references linked to the African diaspora — thanked the prize for providing a “platform for talking about what I wanted to talk about.”
Disclosure: LVMH is part of a group of investors who, together, hold a minority interest in The Business of Fashion. All investors have signed shareholder’s documentation guaranteeing BoF’s complete editorial independence.
