15-05-2025
- Entertainment
- South China Morning Post
Loro Piana Knit Design Award 2025: creative knitwear students from Italy's Accademia Costume & Moda shine with innovative linen designs incorporating the maison's traditional yarns
Morgan Rachel Boyce from Ireland and Simone Rizzato from Italy – two students in the creative knitwear design programme at Italy's Accademia Costume & Moda – are the winners of the ninth edition of the
Loro Piana Knit Design Award, which just took place in Milan.
Since 2016, the
LVMH-owned luxury label has been partnering every year with leading design schools around the world. Each college selects two students for the competition, giving them the chance to work with Loro Piana's prized yarns.
As the purveyor of the finest fibres in the world – from baby cashmere to
merino wool and vicuña – Loro Piana provides students with the raw materials to come up with a unique piece and express their creativity.
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A detail from the outfit created by Morgan Rachel Boyce and Simone Rizzato, which was inspired by parachutes. Photo: Handout
This year's theme, 'Winter Legacy – Translating Linen into Heritage Knitwear', put the focus on a fabric mainly associated with summer garments. Participants were given free rein to blend linen with more traditional
Loro Piana yarns such as cashmere, and create a piece that stayed true to the brief while reflecting their own design sensibility.
The other schools selected for this year's edition were the Beijing Institute of Fashion Technology, L'École Duperré Paris, New York's Fashion Institute of Technology, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, London's Royal College of Art, and the Swedish School of Textiles in Borås. Mixing linen with some of
Loro Piana 's proprietary textiles such as Cashmere 2/27, Coarsehair, Wish, Equilibrio and Libeccio, the finalists conjured up pieces with inspirations ranging from bamboo to parachutes, and paired linen with innovative materials including apple leather.
Helmed by Loro Piana's departing CEO Damien Bertrand, the jury included such luminaries as Italian fashion editor Anna Dello Russo, Milan-based Japanese designer
Satoshi Kuwata , French editor Gilles Denis and American curator Kimberly Drew.
'Besides being strong in terms of techniques and experimenting with the yarns, the two students from the Accademia also offered great storytelling, and their project was very inspiring,' said Dello Russo after the award ceremony. 'It was holistic and wasn't just about technical skills – it was very accomplished and the communication element was also strong.'
The jury members: Italian journalist Antonio Mancinelli, French editor Gilles Denis, French designer Pauline Dujancourt, Loro Piana departing CEO Damien Bertrand, American curator Kimberly Drew, fashion editor Anna Dello Russo and Japanese designer Satoshi Kuwata. Photo: Handout
The winners will each receive a 5,000 euro scholarship, plus the opportunity to spend time in the Loro Piana factories to remake the winning garment, which will be showcased at the Pitti Immagine Filati trade fair in Florence in June.
