MILAN — “It’s so arduous with these prizes to understand how your presentation has been and what the suggestions was. I simply really feel so joyful proper now, I’m very honored — this can be a very large recognition for my model,” mentioned Nicklas Skovgaard.
The Danish designer tuned in on a video name with WWD on Thursday night, proper after studying he gained the annual Wessel & Vett Style Prize. Designed as Denmark’s reply to the LVMH Prize, the distinguished award, which was beforehand bestowed to the likes of Stem’s Sarah Brunnhuber, Anne Sofie Madsen, Cecilie Bahnsen, A. Roege Hove, Saks Potts and Iso.Poetism by Tobias Birk Nielsen, is aimed toward fostering native manufacturers and supporting the worldwide progress of essentially the most promising vogue abilities in Scandinavia.
Second time’s a attraction for Skovgaard, as he was already a finalist of the competition in 2022. “That was a time when the model was actually new,” he mentioned about his namesake womenswear label launched in 2020.
“I didn’t have a correct manufacturing but and I used to be solely working with one retailer at the moment. So it’s additionally been tremendous fascinating prior to now couple of weeks to work on the presentation for this yr’s prize, trying again at what has truly occurred all through the previous three years and the way the model has been growing,” he mentioned.
This strategy sparked the private presentation Skovgaard staged for the jury. “Being an rising designer on this trade may be extraordinarily difficult generally. How do you’re employed your method round it? I made a decision that I actually wished to simply share my journey all the way in which from my childhood, once I fell deeply in love with vogue, to the place I’m in the present day,” Skovgaard mentioned.
Self-taught in textile creation, Skovgaard began his journey when he found a youngsters’s loom in a thrift store, which sparked his ardour for weaving distinctive materials now informing his collections. The combo of surprising supplies — from handwoven wool and technical and water-repellent materials, to silk taffeta with stretch jersey — now ends in a contemporary, usually theatrical tackle conventional silhouettes by way of quantity interplays, peplum hems and puffed sleeves. His fashions stand on the sting of romanticism and realism, evoking a way of familiarity and otherworldly directly.
Skovgaard’s inspirations span from baroque aristocratic portraiture to ’80s popular culture, and are drenched in private reminiscences.
“I grew up in a really small island within the south of Denmark. It was a really typical countryside and a spot the place there was no fancy retailer round. And I feel the one who actually launched me to vogue again then was truly my mom,” Skovgaard mentioned about his largest muse.
“She wasn’t working throughout the vogue trade or something, however as a baby, watching her getting dressed for her on a regular basis life and for going out, I feel actually helped me form my love for vogue,” he continued. “What drives my ardour for vogue in the present day remains to be this sort of virtually infantile mind-set about vogue. Clearly that is such an enormous enterprise, however to me it’s so vital to maintain these moments of creativity and creativeness as a part of it.”
The angle hyperlinks with the last word mission of the model, which is “to make individuals actually, actually joyful each time they put on one in every of my items,” Skovgaard mentioned. “To me, it’s all nearly creating clothes that resonate with you when you put on it, the place you get a very good feeling from and that one way or the other can empower you. Once more, I keep in mind being a baby, watching my mom getting dressed and seeing how joyful she may turn out to be when placing on a sure gown: it’s that very same form of vitality that also guides me in the present day.”
In revealing this version’s winner on the Tom Christoffersen Gallery in Copenhagen, Wessel & Vett Style Prize’s founder Nina Wedell-Wedellsborg highlighted how Skovgaard “stood out for a novel and emotionally wealthy aesthetic.”
“The designs mix theatrical and historic influences with a contemporary contact, turning nostalgia into one thing recent and related. By way of exact building and a powerful sense of kind, [he] transforms clothes into tales that replicate honesty, artistry and innovation,” mentioned Wedell-Wedellsborg, who moreover outlined Skovgaard as “a daring new voice in Danish design — one which challenges conventions whereas staying true to [his] roots.”
Skovgaard beat two different finalists: Mfpen, a Copenhagen-based vogue model based in 2015 by Sigurd Financial institution, and Stel, the womenswear label based by Astrid Andersen.
Like Skovgaard, the opposite two finalists had been additionally nominated earlier than. Specifically, Andersen beforehand gained the competition however together with her namesake menswear label. All three designers’ sophomore nomination replicate the competition’s sharpened concentrate on integrating extra established manufacturers and skilled designers with up-and-coming abilities — a format tweak launched in 2023.
All boasting completely different approaches to vogue, the finalists had been revealed throughout Copenhagen Style Week in August and chosen by a panel of trade consultants, who assessed entries primarily based on standards akin to design expertise and originality, sustainable credentials and enterprise technique.
This version marked the return to the competition’s unique idea of a twin jury: a artistic one assessing every designer’s imaginative and prescient, aesthetics, craft and technical expertise, and a enterprise one evaluating the industrial potential, market attain and long-term model sustainability.
The previous was spearheaded by Wedell-Wedellsborg and included the likes of Sara Sozzani Maino; designer Henrik Vibskov; Marimekko’s artistic director Rebekka Bay; Line Hangaard, senior womenswear designer at Jil Sander, and Olya Kuryshchuk, founder and editor in chief of 1 Granary, amongst others.
The latter comprised Copenhagen Style Week’s chief government officer Cecilie Thorsmark; Mulberry CEO Andrea Baldo; Tekla CEO Kristoffer Juhl; Ganni cofounder Nicolaj Reffstrup, and Rikke Amtorp, head of name and inventive at Magasin du Nord, to quote a couple of.
As winner of the accolade, which was previously often called the Magasin du Nord Style Prize and counts the help of Crown Princess Mary of Denmark, Skovgaard will acquired a money award of 500,000 Danish krona, or 67,000 euros, and, as a part of the continued sponsorship and collaboration with Copenhagen Style Week, complimentary slots on the official present and presentation schedule for the style occasion’s fall 2026 and spring 2027 seasons.
Skovgaard already is aware of how he desires to speculate the prize cash: A bit additional assist would possibly drive the subsequent chapter of his model, since thus far he dealt with straight most facets of the enterprise, overseeing every thing from design and manufacturing to gross sales and communication.
“It’s been an excellent method of understanding the retail market and in addition perceive how it’s to develop an rising model,” the designer mentioned. “However I really feel like I’ve taken it thus far I can myself when it comes to gross sales, so one of many issues that I’d make investments the cash is to truly begin working with a gross sales agent so we are able to each keep the connection with the prevailing stockists and reaching new retailers all over the world,” Skovgaard mentioned.
The model’s present distribution contains the likes of Dover Road Market in Paris, Carv Retailer in Japan, and Café Forgot, Maimoun and Mr. Larkin within the U.S. As well as, Skovgaard just lately relaunched the label’s on-line retailer, which affords his seasonal collections in addition to a number of archival gadgets and made-to-order items. Particularly from the e-commerce, Skovgaard can see potential to develop the enterprise within the U.S., the place many of the orders are at present coming from, he mentioned.
Established in 2012, the Wessel & Vett Style Prize is spearheaded by the Wessel & Vett Basis, created by the descendants of division retailer Magasin du Nord’s Nineteenth-century founders Emil Vett and Theodor Wessel. The award’s change of identify in 2022 was meant to mark the prize’s tenth anniversary and additional have a good time the entrepreneurship and innovation of the retailer.
