Thomas Tait Wins First LVMH Prize

Thomas Tait was crowned the winner of the inaugural LVMH Young Fashion Designer Prize, a project that has shone a spotlight on a swath of indie labels and their challenges.“Congratulations,” said a beaming Delphine Arnault as she handed the slender Canadian women’s wear designer a golden helix of pearls wrapped around a star. The trophy by artist Jean-Michel Othoniel comes with a cash prize of 300,000 euros, or $409,270 at current exchange, plus a year of coaching from LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton executives.

Arnault said the winner was selected on the basis of talent, creativity and potential for development.

Tait said the funds and advice would be a major boost for his London-based label, which sells to about 10 specialty stores.

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“It really will benefit every area of the business,” he told WWD, flanked by models in his minimal, otherworldly dresses. “Financial struggle is something I’m very familiar with as an independent designer.”

The announcement was made at LVMH’s headquarters here after 11 finalists had made individual presentations to a jury stacked with the conglomerate’s designers. It was an Instagram moment of historic proportions as Karl Lagerfeld, Marc Jacobs, Nicolas Ghesquière, Raf Simons, Phoebe Philo and Riccardo Tisci, along with Kenzo’s Humberto Leon, stood in a row for photos.

“He’s an artist in a way,” Lagerfeld said of Tait. “He sketches very well, and as you know, I like sketches.”

Lagerfeld handed over a booklet showing Tait’s delicate, X-ray-like etchings with a superhero undercurrent.

Tait is already something of a designer’s designer with his innovative pattern-cutting, exaggerated silhouettes and occasional Bauhaus and Constructivist touches. Architect Zaha Hadid is among aficionados of his sculptural, yet streamlined clothes.A native of Montreal and a graduate of its Collège LaSalle, Tait went on to receive an M.A. in fashion from London’s Central Saint Martins. He has shown his collections during London Fashion Week since 2010, when he won the inaugural Dorchester Collection Fashion Prize.

Arnault, the force behind the initiative and a key talent scout at the luxury group her family controls, also sat on the jury, along with Pierre-Yves Roussel, chairman and chief executive officer of LVMH Fashion Division, and Jean-Paul Claverie, adviser to LVMH chairman and ceo Bernard Arnault.

She surprised the audience of assembled journalists and LVMH bigwigs by unveiling two additional jury prizes, each greeted with a roar of applause.

Shayne Oliver, the designer behind the New York label Hood by Air, and Miuniku, by Mumbai-based sisters Nikita and Tina Sutradhar, are each to receive 100,000 euros, or $136,400, plus a year of mentoring.

The other finalists were CG by Chris Gelinas, Gabriele Colangelo, Simon Porte Jacquemus, Tillmann Lauterbach, Tim Coppens, Simone Rocha, Vika Gazinskaya, and Suno by Erin Beatty and Max Osterweis.

Julien Dossena, initially among 12 finalists with his brand Atto, was disqualified from the competition when he decided to shutter the nascent label and focus on his work as creative director for women’s wear at the Paco Rabanne fashion house.

Arnault also handed out 10,000 euro ($13,640) scholarships to three fashion graduates, who each get a one-year post in the design studio of a fashion house at LVMH, home to such brands as Fendi, Loewe, Pucci and Donna Karan.

The winners are Peter Do from Fashion Institute of Technology, who is bound for Céline; Teruhiro Hasegawa from Central Saint Martins, who will work at Givenchy, and Flavien Juan Nuñez from La Cambre in Brussels and the Institut Français de la Mode in Paris, who is to join Simons at Dior.

Arnault noted that each school that produced these graduates is to receive 10,000 euros to “symbolize LVMH’s support” of education that encourages fashion renewal and excellence.

There were moments of nerves and excitement earlier in the day as jurors trickled into the LVMH courtyard, where the finalists displayed their designs in a showroom setup. Assistants in Rocha’s booth carefully brushed dark coats with a lint roller.

Finalists were unanimous that the prize brought a windfall of attention and professional contacts, critical currencies in a competitive industry dominated by giants.

“It’s been exponential, really,” marveled Gelinas, two seasons into his CG line after working behind the scenes at Marc Jacobs, Proenza Schouler and Balenciaga. “The biggest challenge when I started was visibility, because in New York there’s a saturation of labels.”

He said the two-step judging process, with an expert panel whittling down from 30 finalists during a Paris showroom session in February, brought a deluge of sample requests and opened doors to key retail contacts, who have confirmed appointments to preview his spring 2015 range.

“It can really change the trajectory of an emerging brand,” Gelinas said.

The panel — roughly 40 prominent figures from retail, publishing and image creation, including Marigay McKee of Saks Fifth Avenue; Sarah Andelman of Colette in Paris; Natalie Massenet of Net-a-porter; stylist Olivier Rizzo; makeup artist Pat McGrath, and art director Fabien Baron — each voted for their 10 favorites, and a four-way tie bumped up the number of finalists to 12.

“This has been like fuel for us,” said Tina Sutradhar, revealing plans to move their business from Mumbai to London, and start showing in the English capital as early as February. “It’s really motivated us to see what’s out there and pushed us to raise the bar.”

The graduates of London College of Fashion are among designers tapped by Vogue Italia to produce a capsule collection for Pepsi, and they will travel to Dubai to present their designs next spring. “It gives us a lot of hope for the future,” Sutradhar stressed.

“It’s good to know that you’re being heard, and people are taking your work seriously,” said Oliver, confessing that the LVMH recognition changed his perspective, earned him more credibility at home, and prompted him to “take it more seriously.”

He said Hood by Air has been invited to show during Paris Fashion Week this fall. The plan is to present “wardrobe essentials” during New York Fashion Week and “artisanal, directional items” in the French capital.

“We have double the press requests we had before,” marveled men’s wear designer Tillmann Lauterbach, who plans to show his spring 2015 collection in Milan rather than Paris next month.

Participating designers cited a warm camaraderie among their peers, and they relished the chance to share war stories.

“Everyone is under pressure, no matter where they are,” said Rocha, a rising star in London whose most recent collection riffed on Elizabeth I. “It’s great to meet all your peers and you can see everyone striving for the same thing.”

Echoing other designers, Rocha said the prize has highlighted how “young designers all over the world have the potential to grow into serious labels.”

In a separate interview earlier in the day, Tait confessed that he was not aware that there were so many independent labels. “It’s nice to see this network of fashion around the globe,” he said, also hinting that the LVMH exposure yielded “some external projects.”

These are vital to support nascent labels, with German-born, Paris-based Lauterbach noting he recently took on a consulting gig in Korea, in addition to the work he does for Chinese brand JNBY, to support his signature line.

“When you start as an independent designer, you struggle. I did it,” said Tisci, who ran his signature label on a shoestring before being plucked from obscurity in 2005 and named the couturier at Givenchy at age 30.

Asked what guided his choice for the victor, Tisci had one word: “Emotion.”

Underscoring the popularity of such fashion contests — and suggesting budding talents are hungry for funding and business advice — 1,221 designers applied for a chance to win, as reported.

The LVMH competition is unique in its global scope, online-only registration and nomination process, plus a gradual elimination process. The competition was open to any designer between the ages of 18 and 40 who has presented and sold at least two collections of women’s or men’s ready-to-wear.

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French Fashion Awards Come of Age

Quite the quadrille has been taking place around France’s most prestigious awards for young fashion designers. This year, Chanel has become one of the principal sponsors of the Festival d’Hyères, Kering has joined the list of sponsors backing the ANDAM award and LVMH has launched a new award of its own, dubbed the LVMH Prize. The first winner, to be announced on May 28th, will be awarded with a grant of €300,000 (about $411,000) and a year of business mentoring, making this the largest such prize in the world.

For sponsors, fashion prizes can offer important opportunities for brand building. With multiple stages — from application to shortlist to winner announcement — an award guarantees sponsors a long run of positive media exposure. A well-juried award can also be a way of building relationships with the young talent that fashion houses need to power their brands and studios, though Jean-Paul Claverie, advisor to Bernard Arnault and head of corporate philanthropy at LVMH, is adamant that the LVMH Prize fits under the umbrella of the group’s corporate philanthropy unit rather than its business divisions. “Yes, we will be in touch with [the winners], we will know them and we will have complicity with them, but it’s absolutely not about us having part of their company — it’s not business development for LVMH,” he says.

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But as the scope and sophistication level of fashion awards grows, it’s worth remembering that things were not always this way. This year marks the 25th anniversary of the ANDAM award, one of France’s longest-running fashion prizes. “Twenty-five years ago in France we had haute couture, but the luxury groups were not yet formed and the fashion culture industry was a new idea,” says ANDAM founder and director Nathalie Dufour. “I built the award on the idea that fashion is an art, but that it is also close to industry and that you had to build, promote and give money to help French and foreign fashion designers who want to build a business in Paris.”

Dufour started the award as a joint enterprise between France’s ministries of culture and industry, with the backing of Pierre Bergé, then president of the DEFI (a committee for the development of the garment industry).

In 1989, ANDAM’s first winner was a young Belgian designer called Martin Margiela who presented deconstructed designs on masked models wearing tabi boots that trod red paint along a white cloth-covered catwalk, and a sensational avant-garde défilé in an impoverished, rubble-strewn Paris ghetto. “Back then it was an award for creativity,” explains Dufour. “[For Margiela] it was symbolically very important to have the recognition of Pierre Bergé – it was like a cultural homage – but in those days we didn’t really think about the designer’s company or their future success.”

Over the coming years, Dufour approached French retailers like La Redoute and Monoprix, inviting them to become involved and collaborate with the award winners. “The idea was to give creativity and youth to these brands; they gave money and the prize became more important.”

In 2000, LVMH stepped in to support the award and this year, with Kering on-board, the prize purse has swelled to €250,000, the mentoring program has become more comprehensive and the prize itself has morphed from an acknowledgement of pure creativity to something closer to a business booster.

Fashion is a cash flow intensive business. Even when a fashion start-up is growing nicely, each season, these young businesses are forced to incur the costs of producing samples, staging shows, ordering fabrics and manufacturing collections long before they are actually paid by customers, meaning that, with limited capital resources, even high-potential businesses can easily go bankrupt.

“It is not artificial to help young designers; they really need support and cash flow,” says Dufour. “To have a strong company you need a big turnover — luxury requires big investment — to show, it is very expensive; to produce, you need to have good cash flow and you need to spend money on marketing. It’s not like being an artist. We have to support the new generation in France.”

Maureen De Clerq, a professor in the fashion department of Antwerp’s Royal Academy of Fine Arts and coordinator of awards for the school, has seen the impact of major prizes on the careers of students past and present. Earlier this year, Hyein Seo’s bachelor collection was picked to be presented at the VFiles Made Fashion show at the start of New York Fashion Week. Two weeks later she was awarded Best Designer in the British Fashion Council’s International Fashion Showcase for Emerging Talent. And by the time the fashion week carousel had hit Paris, her eye-catching white fur ‘Fear’ stole was draped around Rihanna as the singer expertly worked the paparazzi. This June, Seo will graduate with an MA from the Academy.

“It goes so fast after winning an award like that,” says De Clerq. “It gives a lot of visibility, being able to show your work to people in a professional way and now it’s going very fast for her.”

Last year, another student at the Academy, Minju Kim, won the H&M Award for students. For those who have the strength to cope with it, De Clerq sees prizes like these as providing invaluable experience. “After she received the award, she had a lot of press and requests for fashion shoots and demand from stylists — she went through the whole rollercoaster of being a fashion designer in producing her collection, from working with suppliers to commercials in a short space of time.” After graduating last June, Kim created a collection for H&M. Then earlier this year, she became the most recently graduated designer to be nominated for the LVMH Prize.

But there is a flipside to such excitement. Young designers can sometimes feel great pressure to capitalise on the exposure that an award can bring by growing too quickly, only to have their businesses collapse under financial and administrative pressures a few years later.

“The world is full of awards — every week we get demands for participation, but only three per cent of what comes in is interesting to us,” says De Clerq. “You can tell if a company is only organising an award to get press attention; it doesn’t work, the students won’t pick it up. And a prize such as an internship at a commercial company isn’t interesting for the students.”

But for something like the long-established Festival d’Hyères — for which, this year, Chanel pledged to invite the winning designer to work with their “Métier d’Arts” ateliers (including the embroiderers Lesage and Montex, the feather and flower makers Lemarié and the master pleater Lognon) to create five silhouettes to the tune of €15,000 — De Clerq will work with her students to develop their portfolios, and guide their approach to styling and presentation.

The Hyères prize is aimed at graduating and recently graduated students. In addition to the Métiers d’Arts project, the winner of the Grand Prix du Jury will receive €15,000 from Première Vision and visibility at their shows in New York and Paris, as well as a commercial collaboration with Petit Bateau, before returning to Hyères the following year to show new work. There’s something of a salon spirit to the whole enterprise. Jean-Pierre Blanc, founder and director of the Festival d’Hyères, and his team recently launched an initiative inviting previous winners to return to the festival to use it as a networking site for meetings with jury members, sponsors and other professionals.

Unlike ANDAM and Hyères (which LVMH also supports), the LVMH Prize reflects the global scale of fashion industry. “ANDAM and Hyères are more dedicated to the national stage — we wanted to open our dedication to all continents and touch designers from every country… Fashion creation is totally global — the world is changing — we’ve had designers applying from India and Nigeria. It makes me very optimistic for the future success of the prize,” says Jean-Paul Claverie.

But at its core, the LVMH Prize is about providing designers with access to some of the leading figures in fashion. In February, thirty semi-finalists had the opportunity to meet and present their work to the likes of Anna Wintour, Nicolas Ghesquière, Raf Simons, Karl Lagerfeld andDelphine Arnault.

“It was fantastic for the designers to meet all these experts. Many of them are not so easily reachable, so to be in the same place as them and exchange ideas with them is a very positive experience,” adds Claverie. “The credibility and strength of this prize lies in this process; the involvement of all of these people is very important.”

In Paris, the ecosystem of support for young designers has traditionally lagged behind New York and London; few young fashion businesses based in the French capital have achieved the scale or media profile of their counterparts in New York or London. But with the growing scope and sophistication of French fashion awards, the elements of a more comprehensive support system for young designers at various stages of their development seem to be taking shape.

“In France, we try to manage different types of support for young designers after they graduate and at different stages of their careers,” says Jean-Pierre Blanc of Hyères. “The first support is our festival, then after two collections there is the LVMH Prize, then ANDAM and after that the support of the French Federation Council.”

“Actually we didn’t [plan for it] to be like this at all, but we’ve ended up with quite complete support for young designers from leaving school through the beginning of their career.”

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Perth Fashion Festival to honour designer Ruth Tarvydas as her family remember a ‘beautiful and eccentric light’

In a statement issued this afternoon, Tarvydas’ family said they were deeply saddened by the death of their loving sister and aunt.

Tarvydas, 66, was found dead outside her East Perth home on Friday. Police said there were no suspicious circumstances.

“She was both an artisan at work and herself a work of art and we, like many others, marvelled at the success of Ruth and our late brother Harvey’s determination,” the statement read.

“From opening their first store in Perth as teenagers to go on to share Ruth’s creations in stores around the world.

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“We are incredibly proud of her professional achievements that paved the way for many young Australian designers, we take comfort in the knowledge that the legacy of our darling Ruthie will live on for many years to come in our memories and in her designs.”

The family, who will be holding a private service and burial, thanked people for all the wonderful tributes, kind words and respecting their time together as a family as they mourn.

The family’s tribute comes after it was revealed Tarvydas’ legacy will be honoured with a commemorative runway show at the 2014 Telstra Perth Fashion Festival in September.

Festival director Mariella Harvey-Hanrahan, a close friend of Tarvydas, said the show would give Perth an opportunity to recognise her outstanding contribution to fashion and her lifetime of achievements.

“The festival would also like this moment to serve as an opportunity to raise awareness and give a voice to those suffering in silence,” Ms Harvey-Hanrahan said.

“At an appropriate time, we will contact the management of the Tarvydas brand to determine their interest in a commemorative project.”

Perth artist Steven Makse had almost completed a portrait of Tarvydas, which he was planning to submit for the Archibald Prize in June.

He said he was putting final touches to the painting on Friday morning, working off a photograph, when he learned of her death via the internet.

He said Tarvydas had last sat for the portrait at her apartment in January.

“I just took her as being a really positive woman,” he said. “Surprisingly positive considering what she was going through.”

Tarvydas was a Perth fashion icon, who designed some of Australia’s most attention-grabbing evening gowns and her designs were red carpet favourites.

She counted international celebrities among her clients including Rihanna, Emma Watson, Amy Winehouse, Jodie Kidd and Rachel Hunter.

Tarvydas had to close her King Street store in 2012 because of debts of $1 million.

Administrators were appointed to her company RTI (WA) Pty Ltd, but in December 2012 she opened a new store in Claremont’s Times Square precinct, thanks to Perth businessman John Bond.

A spokeswoman for Mr Bond said no decision had been made on what would happen to the Claremont store. “It is just too early to think about that now,” she said.

“So at this point nothing has been discussed or decided and he (is) just trying to process and come to terms with the tragedy that has just occurred and the loss of our beloved Ruth.”

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Fashion Designers Taking Advantage of Gun Laws

Now that Illinois has become the 50th state to legally allow some degree of concealed weapons, several Chicago designers are ready to cash in on the change, coming up with creative and stylish ways for interested parties to hide their firearms.

According to a Gallup poll released last year, 23 percent of gun owners are women - up 13 percent from 2005. A quick Web search turns up a large variety of handbags designed to conceal weapons, but the new trend adds fashionable apparel to the mix.

No matter where you stand on state gun laws, there does appear to be a market for women looking to tote their guns around. Karen Bartuch, a former Chicago police officer and president of the Women's Tactical Association in Illinois translated her love of guns into her own company, AlphaGirls, which sells jewelry and hair accessories that double as self-defense weapons and also offers gun-training classes. "We are girly girls who like fashion, but we like guns too," Bartuch told the Chicago Tribune.

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Bartuch spoke with Yahoo Shine about her involvement in the recent Firearms & Fashion Show in Chicago's Edison Park neighborhood. "Myself and my business partner [Marilyn Smolenski, who owns Chicago-based online retailer Nickel and Lace] joined forces to educate and empower women about self protection in general - not just guns, although we prefer those," she tells Yahoo Shine. "And what better way to do that than through fashion - something most women are attune to and something they share with their girlfriends. It was also great timing because concealed carry was on the brink of passing at the time last year when we held our first show. We knew more women and men would be looking for options for concealed carry."

Bartuch says her own experience in law enforcement has helped her understand consumer needs. "I ... have always had a tough time concealing my weapon when off duty, going to court, or undercover, so I knew this was a problem for women," she explains. "Aesthetics and concealability are important, but more important is function - an improper placement can lead to severe discomfort or inability to get to your firearm when you need to. Women tend to throw it in their purse, which is better than nothing but not ideal."

Another designer, Sarah Church, presented an entire collection of gun-hiding garments at the Firearms & Fashion Show. One hooded dress with a zipper down the front (pictured above) allows for quick and easy access to a gun holster beneath the garment. "This is a dress you could wear anywhere, anytime. You can use high heels to dress it up or boots to dress it down," Church said in an interview with the Chicago Tribune. "And when you're carrying a gun underneath, no one will know it." The dress retails online for $165.

More on Yahoo: Hillary Clinton Says Gun Culture 'Way Out of Balance'

Nickel and Lace camisole holster. Photo via Nickel and LaceMeanwhile, Smolenski's business, Nickel and Lace, has found success with camisole holsters ($79.95), described on the retail website as designed for "functional sexiness," since it sits under the bust, comes with detachable garters, and has pockets designed to hold guns on either side. The e-shop also sells holster bras, tank tops, and belly bands for guns. "We want to show women that you can dress how you want and have all kinds of options and still feel confident in your ability to protect yourself," Smolenski said in the Tribune story.

Fashion isn't the only way the gun industry is targeting women. The NRA is now airing original programming on its website, including "Love at First Shot," a show for the beginner female shooter. The organization also hosted a Youth Day where kids were offered free memberships.

Not everyone, of course, is thrilled about the gun industry's focus on females. Carol Marin, a columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times had nothing but criticism for the local fashion show. "In a city that can't shake its shooting reputation, here we have a firearms/fashion show billed as a way to 'empower women.' And it comes just days after a 14-year-old girl was shot and killed by another 14-year-old girl who will never grow up to be a woman."

Others took to Twitter to voice their concerns about the fashion show.

While concealed-weapon fashions may be growing in popularity in Chicago, clearly there are mixed emotions regarding the trend. Yahoo Shine reached out to Church and Smolenski for comment as well, but neither has yet responded.

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Vikram crafts designer line for Vishal Fashions at IIFA

Vishal Fashions Pvt. Ltd., which holds a strong presence in the domestic fashion industry, showcased its garments at this year’s IIFA Awards in Tampa Bay, Florida, USA.

Leading fashion designer, Vikram Phadnis, who is also a favourite among the leading ladies of Bollywood designed an exclusive collection for Vishal Fashions at IIFA Rocks, a event that is a specifically designed platform for fashion & music.

The Collection designed by Vikram Phadnis for Vishal Fashions is called ‘Nazakat’ and was be an epitome of classic Indian attire.

Held on the 24th of April at the Tampa Convention Centre, the evening was attended by Bollywood stars Shahid Kapoor, Farhan Akhtar, Anil Kapoor, Saif Ali Khan, Kareena Kapoor Khan and many more. The dazzling Malaika Arora Khan and Yami Gautam sashayed down the ramp for The IIFA Collection by Vikram Phadnis for Vishal Fashions.

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Malaika Arora Khan said, “I am so excited to be walking at IIFA Rocks this year. The Nazaakat Collection is all about celebrating femininity. Elegant Indian wear in rich hues are an all time favorite and are guaranteed to be a runaway hit. Vikram is not just a brilliant designer but is also a very dear friend, and I am honoured that he has asked me to walk the ramp for this gorgeous collection. The Nazaakat Collection truly deserves to be showcased in a global scale and IIFA provides the perfect opportunity.”

Designer Vikram Phadnis said, “I’ve been showcasing my Collections at IIFA for many years and it has always been a fabulous experience. IIFA is the perfect platform to reach out to the global Indian community and the Indian Film Industry. Having partnered with Vishal Fashions this year, the Collection ‘Nazaakat’ is going to be a visual treat. The concept of the collection is old world charm, the idea being to bringing back classic designs in deep rich tones.

“The colors I have incorporated are primarily black, beige, gold and maroon with bursts of red, pink and orange. The collection is sexy and glamorous, but without modernizing the sari. The collection will largely feature Sarees along with Lehenga Cholis and Jalabias in tissues, nets, georgettes and brocades that speak of taste, class, richness and allure. Each piece will be an artistic design.”

Commenting about the association, Mr. Dipesh Shah, Director, Vishal Fashions Pvt Ltd said, “We are thrilled to have a designer of Vikram Phadnis’s caliber on board to design our IIFA collection. This collection will encompass the luxury Indian couture experience for those women who value and appreciate classic Indian designs.”

About Vishal Fashions Pvt. Ltd.

Launched with an aim to drape every Indian woman in the mosttraditional ensemble, today Vishal Fashions Pvt. Ltd. hold sa strong position in the national and international fashion industry.

Vishal Fashions has also ventured into the retail sector, launching its exclusive store ‘Arissa’ with 32 stores pan India and aiming to reach 60 by the financial year end in 2015. The brand has been associated with leading designers like Manish Malhotra, Neeta Lulla, Vikram Phadnis, Masaba, Falguni & Shane Peacock, Rocky S, Archana Kochhar and Priyadarshini Rao to name a few.

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Narciso Rodriguez Cited as Top Fashion Designer

Fashion designer Narciso Rodriguez will receive a National Design Award this year from the Smithsonian’s Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, along with 10 other top names in design.

Rodriguez designed the memorable black and red dress worn by first lady Michelle Obama in Chicago on election night in 2008. The dress recently went on display for the first time at the National Archives to represent her signature style in history. Earlier, Rodriguez designed Carolyn Bessette’s wedding dress for her 1996 marriage to John F. Kennedy Jr.

The New York City-based Cooper-Hewitt museum announced this year’s recipients of the design awards Thursday. The museum said Rodriguez “redefined American style for the past two decades, playing a singular role in global fashion through his structured and elegantly minimal designs.” He has also been named one of the nation’s most influential Hispanics by Time magazine.

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In an email to the AP, Rodriguez said he was “elated and moved” by the honor. “It means so much to me to have my work recognized by an institution that I hold in such high regard,” he said.

Asked to characterize what he considers to be his contributions to American style and design, Rodriguez said: “I have always been passionate about process and craft. My focus is to make clothes that celebrate women and are relevant to the way we live.”

This year’s winners also include brand designers Ivan Chermayeff and Tom Geismar for lifetime achievement; architect Witold Rybczynski for design mind; online marketplace Etsy for corporate and institutional achievement; Angela Brooks and Lawrence Scarpa for architecture; San Francisco design studio Office for communication design; Aaron Koblin of San Francisco for interaction design; Roman and Williams Buildings and Interiors for interior design; Andrea Cochran Landscape Architecture for landscape design; and San Francisco design firm LUNAR for product design.

Museum Director Caroline Baumann said this year marks the 15th year of honoring the nation’s top designers.

“I am delighted to welcome this new class of extraordinary designers, each of whom represent the very best in their discipline and demonstrate design’s power to affect the quality of our life, community, economy and environment,” she said in announcing the awards.

The first lady serves as honorary patron of the National Design Awards, which were launched at the White House in 2000. A jury of design leaders and educators reviews nominations and selects winners based on their excellence, innovation and public impact.

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