This morning at Fondation Louis Vuitton, the finalists for the 2015 LVMH Prize presented their collections to a jury that included Marc Jacobs, Karl Lagerfeld, Raf Simons, Riccardo Tisci, and others, for the chance to win $300,000 and a year-long mentorship and support from LVMH Moët Hennessy. After deliberation, the jury announced a short while ago that this year's prize goes to London-based design duo Marta Marques and Paul Almeida, who were handed their award by actress Natalie Portman at today's ceremony.
The designers, who also won the Emerging Womenswear Designer award at the 2014 BFAs, beat out seven other finalists: Arthur Arbesser, Sebastien Meyer and Arnaud Vaillant, Craig Green, Faustine Steinmetz, Simon Porte Jacquemus (who was awarded a special jury prize of $165,000 and one year of coaching) Demna Gvasalia, and the only American finalist, Virgil Abloh.
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Abloh shared photos of the experience on Instagram, including a sneak peek of his upcoming men's collection:
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