LVMH Prize Finalists 2025: Meet Tolu Coker, Steve O Smith, and More

Back in February, LVMH announced the 20 brands vying to win the annual Prize for Young Fashion Designers. Now, the field has been whittled down to just eight, but the competition remains stiff.

The semifinalists gathered in Paris in March to present their collections to the Prize’s jury, which includes Law Roach, Edward Enninful, David Sims, and Pat McGrath. From there, eight brands were chosen to move forward. Another presentation will take place on September 3 after which the jury will pick three winners to take home the LVMH Prize, the Karl Lagerfeld Prize, and the second annual Savoir-Faire Prize, as well as the money and mentorship opportunities that come with each. Last year, it was upcycling pro Ellen Hodakova Larsson who received the highest honor, while Duran Lantink and Standing Ground nabbed the other two wins.

Over the years, the LVMH Prize has proven its ability to catapult its winners toward success, but even making it to the finals is an indication of achievements to come. This year’s finalists are already thriving in the industry; soon, three of them will reach a new level. Familiarize yourself with the eight brands that have caught the eyes of Zendaya, Beyoncé, and Naomi Campbell—as well as the LVHM jury—below.

Alainpaul

Designer: Alain Paul

Location: France

Specialty: Womenswear, menswear, genderless

Alain Paul was a ballet dancer before he made the switch to fashion at the age of 18. Still, the highly disciplined world of ballet has remained part of him—and his design process. Paul’s namesake brand, which he launched in 2023, is defined by its sharp lines, experimental cuts, and precise construction. The dancer’s wardrobe, as well as the study of movement and posture, often act as starting points for Paul’s designs. His spring 2025 collection—which was also the brand’s Paris Fashion Week debut—was titled “Impro,” inspired in part by choreographers Merce Cunningham, Pina Bausch, and Roland Petit. Similarly, fall 2025 looked to the performer, with Paul presenting an array of dresses that twisted around the model’s body, plus sweaters that seemed to leap off the shoulders.

All-in

Designers: Benjamin Barron and Bror August Vestbø

Location: United States (Barron) and Norway (Vestbø)

Specialty: Womenswear and genderless

Fans: Haim, Lily-Rose Depp, Dua Lipa, and Charli xcx

All-in began as a magazine, launched by Benjamin Barron after he graduated from New York’s Bard College in 2015. He met Bror August Vestbø—who’d just moved to New York—at the magazine’s launch party and they soon began dating and working together. All-in’s lack of advertisers left Barron and Vestbø without much of a budget, so the pair often used thrifted and upcycled clothing for the magazine’s editorials. They sourced garments from the Porta Portese flea market in Rome, and in 2019, began selling their creations. Designer Maryam Nassir Zadeh was an early supporter, and hosted All-in’s first show in her downtown New York store. Since then, the brand has garnered a cult following, with fans that include Lotta Volkova (who now styles their collections).

Each of All-in’s collections explores a different story. “We’re always inspired by characters who are at a heightened moment of representation or trying to achieve something,” Vestbø told W. Often, it’s pop culture that acts as an influence. The label’s spring 2025 collection, “Uptown Girl,” for example, was inspired by Melanie Griffith’s Working Girl character. This spring, the designers showed their first fall collection (off calendar, per usual). And of course, the magazine is still in circulation.

Francesco Murano

Designer: Francesco Murano

Location: Italy

Specialty: Womenswear

Fans: Beyoncé, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Anok Yai, and Katy Perry

Francesco Murano finds beauty in opposition—he’s even an avid Friedrich Nietzsche head. The idea of contrasts is an ongoing theme that has defined his work since his eponymous brand’s founding in 2021.

There is an unmistakable romanticism within his clothing. Murano makes great use of a moulage technique, where he drapes fabric directly on the mannequin. The results are dresses, blouses, and skirts that fold into the models’ bodies, turning them into Roman sculptures in all their strength and glory.

Murano has been on the fast track to success since he graduated from The Istituto Europeo di Design in Milan in 2019. It was not long after that when Beyoncé’s stylist, Zerina Akers, noticed his designs and put her client in a gray, structured Francesco Murano mini dress. Since then, Murano has garnered a following, and this past season, he showed for the first time at Milan Fashion Week. The collection, “Aequus Libra”—a title that references the idea of equilibrium—harkened back to that study of contrast and opposites.

Soshiotsuki

Designer: Soshi Otsuki

Location: Japan

Specialty: Menswear

This is not Soshi Otsuki’s first ride around the LVMH Prize block. The designer was actually shortlisted in 2016, and in the decade since, Otsuki’s skills, confidence, and reach have only multiplied. Otsuki founded his brand in 2015, inspired by his personal experiences practicing Judo and his interest in classical Japanese performing arts. Now, the menswear designer—who is known for his tailored, Armani-adjacent suits and his combination of Japanese and Western fashion—is ready to take the whole competition. Like many other designers, Otsuki is currently exploring the ’80s, and his fall 2025 collection features draped, oversize suits and shoulder pad-adorned tuxedo shirts. It’s all very Tokyo Vice, but still squarely placed in 2025, especially when considering this year’s Met Gala theme of dandyism.

Steve O Smith

Designer: Steve O Smith

Location: United Kingdom

Specialty: Womenswear and menswear

Fans: Harry Styles and Eddie Redmayne

Steve O Smith began drawing when he was two years old, but his signature sketching technique did not become part of his practice until he was getting a master’s degree at Central Saint Martins. After painting directly on his clothes failed, Smith’s tutor recommended he start drawing and cutting his patterns like they were his sketches. “So I did that all summer,” he told W in October 2024. “Then I got Covid and I had to self-isolate in my flat, which was incredibly boring, so I was just cutting fabric the whole time.” When he ran out of fabric, Smith began using his scraps. “It turned into a form of collage where I was sewing the scraps down at the same speed I made marks on paper. That was the first time the boundary properly broke down for me. I started thinking about cutting, draping, and sewing as extensions of the drawing process itself.”

Thus, Smith’s signature was born: Organza pieces structured with boning and layered with tulle and swaths of black fabric. Each model is a sketch brought to life. There is a clear ’50s influence in much of Smith’s work—most obvious in the fit-and-flare dresses and shin-length pencil skirts. That era also informs Smith’s business model, which is mostly based in made-to-order pieces. “There’s a lot to be said for getting to know a client and customizing the garment to them,” he said. “It’s really rewarding.”

Tolu Coker

Designer: Tolu Coker

Location: United Kingdom

Specialty: Womenswear

Fans: Doechii and Ariana Grande

Tolu Coker’s namesake label is all about craftsmanship and culture. The designs are, in large part, inspired by her British-Nigerian heritage, and Coker looks at her brand’s successes as a win for her whole community. Right now, there is a lot for them to celebrate.

Coker founded her brand in 2021 with the goal of creating sustainable fashion that challenged the definition of luxury. Her clothes always feel like a sartorial party, thanks to Coker’s bold color palette and pattern use. Corsets and mini-skirts have become Coker’s signatures, expertly molding to the model’s body before erupting in a sea of flouncy taffeta and duchess satin. Elongated collars and exaggerated sleeves provide an antique, British sensibility while hip-hugging minis and go-go boots evoke the ’60s. Blend all of that, and what do you get? Fun clothes women actually want to wear.

Torishéju

Designer: Torishéju Dumi

Location: United Kingdom

Specialty: Womenswear and menswear

Fans: Zendaya and Naomi Campbell

When Naomi Campbell opens your debut show, you know there’s a bright future ahead. This was the case for Torishéju Dumi, who caught the eyes of some major fashion players very early on in her career. First, Dumi met stylist Gabriella Karefa-Johnson in 2021. “What stood out to me about her work is that she was creating esoteric, intelligent, and abstract design,” the stylist and LVMH jury member told W in February 2024.

Karefa-Johnson suggested Dumi put on a fashion show for her collection “Fire on the Mountain” and helped book Campbell for the presentation. The collection featured loose, imperfect draping, based on Nigerian lappa clothing. The more undone pieces were contrasted by some classic British tailoring, like blazers and overcoats. Her spring 2025 collection explored the concepts of decadence and decay: sheer black dresses, skirts, and tops were stuffed with excess white fabric, like they’d been thrown together at the last minute. Ivory blouses looked like they could blow away at any moment. These details provide an ease to the clothes, which is probably what drew Zendaya to the label. The actress wore a design from Dumi’s spring 2024 collection last year while promoting Dune: Part Two—a highlight of her fashion-filled press tour.

Zomer

Designer: Danial Aitouganov

Location: Netherlands

Specialty: Womenswear

Zomer means summer in Dutch, and the name is especially fitting for this Paris-based brand, founded in 2023 by designer Danial Aitouganov and stylist Imruh Asha. There’s a feeling of joy and whimsy in Aitouganov’s clothing,. For example, the fall 2025 Zomer show started at the end, with models walking out in a finale procession. Many of the ensembles in the collection were designed backward, with one turn revealing an open back on an unbuttoned shirt or trench coat. It could have read gimmicky, but Aitouganov and Asha are pros at the little details that add some needed humanity to the designs. One skirt revealed a lining resembling a man’s dress shirt while another looked like a crisp white button-down folded in on itself. Pieces created in collaboration with knitwear designer Cécile Feilchenfeldt were equally as amusing, with colorful tubes that bounced in unison with the models’ steps. One can’t help but smile when they see Aitouganov’s work. It’s like the feeling you get on the first day of summer.