Meet the three Arab designers shortlisted for the LVMH Prize 2025

The National

04-03-2025

Three designers from the Middle East are among the 20 shortlisted names for the 2025 LVMH Prize. The annual award is handed out across three categories. The Young Fashion Designers winner will receive a €400,000 endowment and a year of mentorship. The Karl Lagerfeld Prize winner will be awarded €200,000 and a year of mentorship, and the Savoir-Faire Prize recipient will receive a €200,000 grant along with mentorship. Now in its 12th year, the prize has thrown a spotlight on rising talent, with past winners including SS Daley, Ahluwalia, Grace Wales Bonner and Marques'Almeida. The 20 semi-finalists will present their work to LVMH jury members at the Louis Vuitton Foundation at Paris Fashion Week, from which the winners will be selected. Here's a look at the three designers from the region who are in the running. Launched in 2014, the eponymous Qatari label is one of the first homegrown women's luxury labels in the country. It creates elevated womenswear described as pret-a-couture, or ready couture. Utilising deft tailoring, bold silhouettes and roomy, architectural shapes, the brand is rapidly making a name for itself. After winning the evening wear category at the 2024 Fashion Trust Arabia awards, Yasmin Mansour is aiming for further recognition at LVMH. Lebanese designer Cynthia Merhej founded Renaissance Renaissance. The brand is the product of a strong fashion heritage – Merhej is a third-generation couturier, and combines rich femininity with a deep-rooted sense of rebellion. Its pretty pieces feature delicate elements such as bows, ties and frills that nod to historical notions of what defines 'womanhood'. Look closer, however, and the contemporary shapes and cuts are challenging and new. Frilly mini skirts, ruched tops, bulbous skirts and sheer, tiered dresses are some of the pieces that make this Beirut label beloved of the cool girl crowd, including Chloe Sevigny, while never losing wearability. Eager to protect the unique dressmaking skills of Beirut, every piece is made in the Lebanese capital. Merhej was chosen for Net-A-Porter's The Vanguard global mentorship in 2021, the same year she was a semi-finalist for the LVMH Prize. Will she strike it lucky the second time around? KML is a Saudi menswear label founded in 2022 by Ahmed and Razan Hassan. The designers have built their creations on hours of research into how humans have dressed through history and how meanings have distilled through time. This has resulted in collections that challenge the notions of contemporary fashion and what it signifies. Some labels could lose themselves in such highbrow thinking but KML retains a keen eye for the wearable, with richly draped wrap tunics, wide-legged trousers and tops with discreet cut-out panels. Clever, intriguing and thought-provoking, it is little wonder that when stylist Law Roach attended 1001 Seasons of Elie Saab in Riyadh, he did so wearing KML.