The Louis Vuitton Foundation, chrysalis made of steel and glass designed by American architect Franck Gehry, announced the Albanian designer Nensi Dojaka as the LVMH Prize 2021 Winner. This fashion award helps emerging designers to develop their brand with 300,000 euros and an LVMH mentor for one year. This 8th edition of the ceremony also awarded three designers for the Karl Lagerfeld Prize. Colm Dillane, Rui Zhou, and Lukhanyo Mdingi are winning 150,000 euros and a one-year LVMH Mentoring.
Around 2,000 candidacies were sent this year. Among the nine finalists, Nensi Dojaka is the one chosen by the jury composed of the six artistic directors from the LVMH group: Kim Jones and Maria Grazia Chiuri for Dior, Virgil Abloh for Louis Vuitton, Jonathan Anderson for Loewe, Stella McCartney, and Marc Jacobs. The French actress Isabelle Huppert was also present to announce the awarded designers. A graduate from the prestigious Central Saint Martins fashion school in London, Nensi Dojaka launched her namesake label while completing her BA at the London College of Fashion in 2017.
Thanks to celebrities such as the actress Emily Ratajkovski and top model Bella Hadid wearing her designs, the brand visibility became viral on Instagram. Today, with more than 150,000 followers on her page, her designs became easy to recognise, such as a Chanel tweed jacket or a Dior Bar Suit. Winning the LVMH Grand Prize means that Nensi Dojaka has a real potential to develop the brand internationally, make her team grow and make her signature little black dresses The new luxury must-have in the female wardrobe.
Her vision explores the body with a minimalist sensuality. A taste for asymmetry and deconstruction appears in her collections, expressing the essence of female nature: strength and vulnerability. As a sculptor, she works directly on models to design the silhouettes, creating lingerie-inspired pieces mixed with tailoring. Wearing Nensi Dojaka means being strong, sensual and self-confident. To be able to wear a transparent mesh corset with a black blazer and black tights.
Dojaka brings a new wardrobe by disobeying the established principles of balance, proportion, and design. It pays homage to the distorted female body as explored by the Surrealist artists of the twentieth century. Challenging conventional notions of female beauty, Dojaka’s expertly crafted asymmetric and deconstructed designs speak to an emotional intensity that is powerful in its raw sensuality. As an emerging designer arriving to catch the zeitgeist, we can congratulate and wish her all the best for the future.
