2019's LVMH Prize Winner Just Made History (And Walked Away With €300,000)

Twenty-six year old designer, Thebe Magugu, has just made history. He’s the first African designer to be awarded the LVMH Prize, a €300,000 (£269,000) cash sum, dished out by one of the world’s most valuable luxury groups ⁠— the parent group of Louis Vuitton, Christian Dior, Givenchy, Celine and Rihanna’s Fenty (in short: fashion's key players).

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‘I’m not going to lie, I did not expect to win,’ Magugu said — visibly stunned —at the finale in Paris, in Vuitton’s impressive Frank Gehry designed space, which houses the work of blockbuster artists.

Appropriate, given that the conglomerate gathers the creative directors of its renowned brands to select its LVMH Prize winner. (And invited actress, Alicia Vikander to present the trophy).

Magugu was one of eight finalists, joined by Kunihiko Morinaga (Arealage), Bethany Williams, Emily Adams Bode (Bode), Hed Mayner, Kenneth Izedonmwen (Kenneth Ize), Spencer Phipps (Phipps), and Stefan Cooke and Jake Burt (Stefan Cooke).

They were all gathered at the finale in Paris to present their work to LVMH’s panel of experts. ‘It was really hard to choose,’ laughed one of those experts, Delphine Arnault, who launched the prize in 2013. ‘This year is our biggest year; we received 1,700 applications from over 100 countries. But we have to choose someone.’ (Two people, in fact.)

There’s no formal criteria when it comes to making that choice, made evident by the diversity of the finalists’ work — ranging from minimal, outsized separates (by Hed Mayner), to riotous, colourful prints (by Kenneth Ize), to hiking-trail styles with a street sensibility (by Phipps).

‘What’s great about Thebe’s work is that it’s very identifiable and made using beautiful fabrics with beautiful cuts,’ Arnault says of this year’s winner. ‘We saw huge potential there and how we could help him grow his business. It was hard for him to export his products from South Africa. But the talent is there and we can, with the help of the organisation, help him grow.’

This is the first year the prize has featured any designers from Africa on the shortlist.

Which speaks to how we communicate, with an increasingly global outlook as we all share, swapping messages and images, with people from all over the world on Instagram. ‘There’s a lot of amazing talent out there,’ Arnault adds. ‘One of the things about the prize is that it’s open to any nationality.’

All it takes to apply for the LVMH prize is an internet connection, and access to a laptop (provided you’re aged between 18 and 40, with at least two collections to your name), which Arnault sees as an advantage, allowing her to ‘discover new talents that aren’t known in Paris, Milan, New York, or London'. Talent, that in the case of Johannesburg-based Magugu, and Lagos-based Ize, plans to stay put, operating outside the traditional fashion capitals.

‘I’m definitely staying in Johannesburg,’ Magugu emphatically nods when asked if he'd move elsewhere. ‘It’s my ambition, as a designer, to create this brand with a global reputation, which is based in South Africa.’

‘He makes use of local craft, and he doesn’t want to leave. He wants to be global, which is what’s great,’ said Maria Grazia Chiuri, one of the judges, and creative director at LVMH brand, Dior. ‘[LVMH] is a big group, it’s global, and we can support young talent to be global.’

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‘It made a big difference, with Thebe, that he wanted to stay in Johannesburg,’ added Nicolas Ghesquière, who heads up womenswear for Louis Vuitton. ‘As far as possible, that’s his wish, to stay in his country and develop an international brand. To be brave, and to try, taking the principle of local resources, and to have a really fashion point of view. It’s great; it’s not a constraint.’

It’s a strength, which affords Magugu’s work its USP: producing boundary-pushing styles informed by the political activism of Africa’s non-violent anti-apartheid Black Sash movement. ‘I interviewed those women. And they’re incredible. One of them was telling me she would start the day cooking for her husband and kids in a conservative day dress, and when they left she would put on jeans, and an anorak and hiking boots, then she’s out the door to protest.’ So his work is pragmatic and energetic; it's separates and outerwear in bold cobalt and red, shot through with optimistic yellows and pinks.

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It’s made locally, too, with one wrap dress ‘made out of mud by a witch doctor, an actual witch doctor, who lives up in the mountains.’

So, what does a 26 year old, Johannesburg-based designer do with a sudden cash injection of €300,000? ‘I’ve thought about it. A lot,’ laughed Magugu. ‘I’m moving out!’ — of his house, he means, for work, at least. ‘I’m going to get a studio, where I can comfortably work from. Then I want to hire staff in key areas of my business. Up until now it’s just been me and my machinist,’ he explains. ‘And my machinist just does the sewing, so everything up until that point is on me, whether it’s bookkeeping, administration, drafting the patterns, doing the cutting of the fabric…’ That’s how Hed Mayner, the winner of the €150,000 (£134,000) Karl Lagerfeld Prize, also plans to spend his money.

The mentoring that comes with the money ‘will be priceless', Magugu adds. However, the LVMH Prize judges, including Grazia Chiuri, Ghesquière, Clare Waight Keller of Givenchy, Jonathan Anderson, and more, believe they’re the ones with more to learn.

What the eight finalists have in common is a commitment to sustainability, whether that means addressing fashion’s environmental impact, repurposing used materials, or ethical concerns, thinking about the way they work with local artisans or the pace at which they show collections.

‘These guys think about the future,’ said Dior’s Grazia Chiuri. ‘Not only do they know about creativity, they know about technology. I’m not technological, and to see them think about design and the environment, with new technology, it’s smart. It’s very smart. And I’d like to know more.’

Louis Vuitton’s Nicolas Ghesquière echoed Grazia Chiuri's sentiment. ‘They’re really thinking about sustainability,’ he said. ‘We have a lot to learn from them. A lot. Which is great news.’ Cause for optimism, with the future of fashion in safe (LVMH-backed) hands. ‘Maybe that comes from the orange carpet,’ Delphine Arnault quipped, closing proceedings from the tangerine-carpeted space. Well, that too.