UPDATE: Richard Malone and Emily Adams Bode Take Home Woolmark Prizes
Both used sustainable techniques in their winning collections.
UPDATE (February 18, 2020): Held at London Fashion Week Fall/Winter 2020, this year’s International Woolmark Prize saw a selection of emerging designers present competing collections for a chance to win over $100,000 USD. Selected by a panel of judges including Dior Men’s Artistic Director Kim Jones and artist Takashi Murakami, two winners have been announced: Richard Malone was awarded the Woolmark grand prize and Emily Adams Bode of BODE won the inaugural Karl Lagerfeld Award for Innovation.
Sustainability proved to be a central theme to this year’s competition, as both Malone and Adams Bode incorporated eco-friendly techniques into their winning ranges. Malone used plant-based dyes and worked with local weavers in Tamil Nadu, India to create his collection while Adams Bode constructed garments of dead stock fabrics found in abandoned factories.
Head to Woolmark’s website for more on Richard Malone and Emily Adams Bode, as well images of their full collections.
ORIGINAL STORY (January 21, 2020): This year’s prestigious International Woolmark Prize will be judged by a panel of formidable industry experts including Dior Men’s Artistic Director Kim Jones and artist Takashi Murakami. The ceremony will see finalists including A-COLD-WALL*, BODE and Feng Chen Wang go head-to-head for a prize of $200,000 AU (approximately $137,000 USD) and is set to take place in February during London Fashion Week.
The judging panel will also include Business of Fashion Editor Tim Blanks, British Vogue Editor-In-Chief Edward Enninful, model Anja Rubik and educator and activist Sinead Burke. In honor of the late Karl Lagerfeld, the first-ever Woolmark Prize winner of 1954, this year’s ceremony will introduce the Karl Lagerfeld Award for Innovation to a finalist exhibiting outstanding creativity. The inaugural award will be presented by stylist and CR Fashion Book founder Carine Roitfeld.
Watch this space next month as the International Woolmark Prize winners are announced. In the meantime, scroll down for a full list of judges and finalists.
2020 International Woolmark Prize Judging Panel
Tim Blanks – Editor-at-Large, Business of Fashion
Hamish Bowles – International Editor at Large, Vogue
Sinead Burke – Educator and Advocate
Edward Enninful OBE – Editor-in-Chief, British Vogue
Kim Jones – Artistic Director, Dior Men
Takashi Murakami – Artist and President of Kaikai Kiki Co., Ltd.
Holli Rogers – Chief Executive Officer, Browns & Chief Brand Officer, Farfetch
Anja Rubik – Model, Founder of sexedPL, Philanthropist
Shaway Yeh – Founder of yehyehyeh & Group Style Editorial Director at Modern Media group2020 International Woolmark Prize Finalists
A-COLD-WALL* – United Kingdom
BLINDNESS – South Korea
BODE – USA
Botter – The Netherlands
Feng Chen Wang – China & UK
GmbH – Germany
Ludovic de Saint Sernin – France
Matthew Adams Dolans – USA
Namacheko – Belgium
Richard Malone – Ireland
