2018 marks the fifth edition of the LVMH Prize – the award for upcoming design brands that has a grand prize of €300,000 and a year’s worth of mentorship. Today, the 20 semi-finalists for this year’s prize have been announced.

As always, the selection represents a diverse range of designers from all over the globe including Edda Gimnes from Norway, Magda Butrym from Poland, Berlin-based Ottolinger and Antwerp graduate duo Rushemy Botter and Lisi Herrebrugh. Hoping they will be more successful this time around are GmbH, Charles Jeffrey, and Faustine Steinmetz who have all been nominated previously.

Elsewhere there are first-time nominees in the form of Eckhaus Latta, Ludovic de Saint Sernin, and Samuel Ross’s A-COLD-WALL*. For the first time since the prize was founded, the applicants were asked to note how they are approaching sustainability with their labels – something that is important for the luxury group.

With the finalists being announced in June – to be judged by the likes of Karl Lagerfeld, Nicolas Ghesquière, Marc Jacobs, Maria Grazia Chiuri, and Jonathan Anderson – we won’t have long to wait to see who will be joining previous winners Marine Serre, Marques’Almeida and Grace Wales Bonner.

UPDATE: The nine finalists have now been announced as A-COLD-WALL*, Botter, Charles Jeffrey, Doublet, Eckhaus Latta, Kwaidan Editions, Ludovic de Saint Sernin, Matthew Adams Dolan, and Rokh. The winner will be announced on June 6. 

View the full list of semi-finalists below: 

Samuel Ross – A-COLD-WALL*

Akiko Aoki – Akikoaoki

Rushemy Botter & Lisi Herrebrugh – Botter

Charles Jeffrey – Charles Jeffrey Loverboy

Masayuki Ino – Doublet 

Zoe Latta & Mike Eckhaus – Eckhaus Latta

Edda Gimnes – Edda

Reid Baker & Ines Amorim – Ernest W Baker 

Faustine Steinmetz – Faustine Steinmetz

Serhat Isik & Benjamin Huseby – GmbH 

Lea Dickley & Hung La – Kwaidan Editions 

Ludovic De Saint Sernin – Ludovic De Saint Sernin

Magdalena Butrym – Magda Butrym

Marta Jakubowski – Marta Jakubowski

Matthew Adams Dolan – Matthew Adams Dolan

Neil Grotzinger – Nihl 

Cosima Gadient & Christa Bösch – Ottolinger 

Rok Hwang – Rokh

Snow Gao – Snow Xue Gao

Younchan Chung – The Sirius