PARIS — Hennes & Mauritz AB has named French designer Eddy Anemian the winner of its international H&M Design Award.
The 24-year-old, who is in his final year of fashion studies at La Cambre in Brussels, unveiled his collection Tuesday at Stockholm’s Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week. He is to receive a cash prize of 50,000 euros, or $68,375 at current exchange, and H&M will develop pieces from the collection to be sold at select H&M stores this fall.
“All of the judges fell in love with Eddy’s collection, both the romance of how it looks when it is worn and the extraordinary skill of his work seen up close. He is a worthy winner, and a bright new star for fashion’s future,” said Ann-Sofie Johansson, H&M’s creative head of design.
Tilda Swinton in the movie “I Am Love,” and the French painter Ingres inspired Anemian’s collection. “In the film, [Swinton] is Russian, she lives in Italy and she wears Jil Sander outfits,” he said. “It’s that idea of European exoticism that interested me.”
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Many items are made of floral furnishing fabrics cut or torn into long strips and reassembled so that the pattern appears fractured, in what the designer called a modern interpretation of ikat. The technique is used for a long acid-yellow couture-inspired skirt that is paired with a black short-sleeve top.
“I like the idea of sensuality, and perhaps even glamour. I wouldn’t object to that description. But I don’t want any nudity. Rather, I tend to cover the body, and I just wanted to play with proportion — the idea of lots of patterns, or cutting jackets with really high collars that make you carry your head in an aristocratic way,” he said.
Anemian said he’d like to launch his own brand someday, but was keen to get more experience in the industry first. The student, who has interned at Gaspard Yurkievich, Yiqing Yin and Balenciaga, said his dream job would be working for Maison Martin Margiela or Lanvin.