THE SWISS TEXTILES AWARD

Last year at the 2008 Swiss Textiles Award, sister design team Kate and Laura Mulleavy made history when they took home the big €100,000 prize for their critically acclaimed Rodarte line, making them the first Americans to ever win the prestigious honor.

Founded in 2005, the Mulleavy sisters named their line – in Proenza Schouler fashion – after their mother’s maiden name, and in less than a handful of years their line has found its way to some of the world’s most exclusive retailers including Bergdorf Goodman, Barneys New York, Neiman Marcus, Nordstrom, Ikram, Jeffrey, and Colette.

For the 2009 award, which will be handed out on November 12th at the Schiffbau in Zurich, three American designers, Alexander Wang, Thakoon Panichgul, and Ohne Titel, join another three nominees Erdem, Alexis Mabille, and Peter Pilotto for consideration to win the top honor. The winner will be chosen by an esteemed judging committee that includes Suzy Menkes, who has been the fashion reporter and editor for the International Herald Tribune since 1988, Kate Betts who is now the editor of TIME Style & Design (she has previously worked for Vogue), and 13 other editors and top retailers from Zurich, Paris, Moscow, New York, London, Tokyo, Berlin, Munich, Seoul, Milan, and Kuwait City.

This is the tenth year that the Swiss Textiles Award will be given out to a young designer.  Past winners have included Raf Simons (before he was appointed the creative director at Jil Sander), Bruno Pieters (at the time of his win he was not yet designing for Hugo Boss), and the newly-appointed Halston creative director, Marios Schwab. If these past winners are any indication, this year’s winner can expect a bright future.

Images courtesy of the Fashion Spot forums.


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