London fashion hot shot Thomas Tait just got a career injection of rocket fuel: he has won the inaugural LVMH Prize, newly set up to seek out and support new design talent worldwide.
The prize includes a 300,000 euro lump sum and a year of mentoring, but doubtlessly it will be the recognition by the upper echelons of the industry that's most valuable.
The judging panel included Karl Lagerfeld, Nicolas Ghesquière, Marc Jacobs, s Humberto Leon and Carol Lim, Phoebe Philo, Raf Simons and Riccardo Tisci, along with the luxury conglomerate's best business brains.
Canada-born Tait, who trained on the prestigious Central Saint Martins MA course and has shown his ready-to-wear collections at London Fashion Week since February 2011, beat off stiff competition from fellow finalists CG by Chris Gelinas, Gabriele Colangelo, Shayne Olivers Hood by Air, Simon Porte Jacquemus, Miuniku by sisters Nikita and Tina Sutradhar, Tillmann Lauterbach, Tim Coppens, Simone Rocha, Vika Gazinskaya, and Suno by Erin Beatty and Max Osterweis.
