Last night, The Hotel Le Marois—Paris, France—was the scene for the 2021 iteration of the prestigious ANDAM Prize competition. Some of the industry’s finest, designers and fashion executives, convened in person—as well as on zoom—to celebrate this years batch of designers and hand out its four distinguished prizes: The Grand Prize, Pierre Bergé Prize, Accessories Prize and The Innovation prize. ANDAM—Founded in 1989 by Nathalie Dufour with first awardee being Martin Margiela himself—this years impressive pool of designers competing for the Grand prize, included the likes of Casablanca, Area, Ludovic de Saint Sernin, Rokh, and London-based Grace Wales Bonner. With a jury of judges—including Kerby Jean-Raymond, Francois Henri Pinault and THE Phoebe Philo—British menswear designer, Bianca Saunders impressed the panel taking home the Grand Prize of €300,000—that’s $355,297 for our American readers. The prize also comes with a year’s worth of mentorship by Balenciaga CEO & President Cédric Charbit.
With this honor, Saunders joins a list of design heavyweights such as Marine Serre, Y/Project, Iris Van Herpen and Anthony Vacarello. We’d say she’s in good company! Saunders eponymous label is the distinctive new design voice challenging the bounds of what menswear looks like today. From Man Ray surrealist influences, to her take on Ballroom categories, her work often takes on curatorial themes, involving research that gives depth to the collections. The collections are often an exploration of Saunders’ different identities and draw heavily on her background growing up in London but with a strong West-Indian heritage. There’s an organic exploration of challenging the tension between tradition and evolution. Activating the collections even further, Saunders has created capsule fashion films to aid in telling the narratives of the garments as well as a special edition Zine. It’s holistic design at it’s finest.
Check out some looks from her recent Fall/Winter 2021′ collection below:
With this win, substantial financial support and mentorship from a top fashion executive, we’re excited to see what’s next for Saunders and her brand.
