Masayuki Ino wins the 2018 LVMH Prize

Organized for the fifth year running, the LVMH Prize has just been awarded to Masayuki Ino, Japanese designer of the Doublet brand. This victory entitles him to 300,000 euros in prize money, making it the richest fashion competition in the world. It’s also an opportunity to take a closer look at the young designer’s background.

The LVMH prize, a fine reward for Masayuki Ino

With the age limit for participants in the competition set at 40, Masayuki Ino, born in 1979, came very close to not being able to compete. Yet he was chosen as one of nine finalists for the 2018 LVMH Prize, beating out some of the most promising talents: Scottish designer Charles Jeffrey (Loverboy), American Matthew Adams Dolan, and Briton Samuel Ross (A-Cold-Wall).

The 2018 LVMH Prize, a vintage of great quality

The 2018 LVMH Prize finalists had set the bar very high. Delphine Arnault, Deputy Managing Director of Louis Vuitton, who was behind the microphone at the award ceremony, underlined this quality. This is a very good vintage, bringing together the most talented international figures on the fashion planet. This year, the quality of the candidates made the choice difficult, leading LVMH to create a Special Prize, endowed with 150,000 euros, awarded to Korean-born designer Rok Hwang for his women’s brand Rokh.

Masayuki Ino and his Doublet brand

Trained at the Tokyo Mode Academy, Masayuki Ino worked as a designer for the house of Mihara Yasuhiro, before launching his own label, Doublet, in 2012. After winning several awards in Japan, the couturier took part in Tokyo’s Fall-Winter Fashion Week for the first time in 2017.

Masayuki Ino’s conceptual style

The designer offers a reinterpretation of basic garments in a style that is both chic and punk. He’s surfing the unisex fashion trend that’s blossoming everywhere at the moment, with a line of comfortable, loose-fitting clothes combining Japanese motifs and fluorescent colors, in a resolutely non-conformist spirit.

In just a few years, the LVMH Prize has become a hotly contested competition. This year, 4,000 candidates applied to take part. The rich endowment it boasts is certainly no stranger to this phenomenon, but the jury’s reputation is another strong argument in its favor. In any case, the LVMH Prize is now one of the most prestigious fashion competitions in Europe, able to rival the Andam d’Hyères or the British Fashion Council!