Marques’Almeida Wins 2015 LVMH Prize

Marques’Almeida, the British label designed by Marta Marques and Paulo Almeida, has scooped up the 2015 LVMH Young Designer’s Prize. With it the designers win not only 300,000 euros (about $333,000), fashion’s biggest cash windfall for a new brand, but also a year’s mentorship from executives in the world’s largest luxury group. They also get the LVMH stamp of approval, an invaluable asset when it comes to persuading retailers to invest in a young name.

Mr. Almeida and Ms. Marques, in a phone call from Paris, described the award as a turning point for them.

Marques’Almeida beat out seven other finalists for the prize. Jacquemus, a Paris-based label designed by Simon Porte Jacquemus, was awarded a special jury prize and will receive 150,000 euros.

The prize is decided by a jury composed of most of LVMH’s star designers, including Karl Lagerfeld, Marc Jacobs, Nicolas Ghesquière, Raf Simons, Phoebe Philo (among others), as well as Delphine Arnault, an executive at Louis Vuitton and one of the group’s main talent hunters.

Like Thomas Tait, the inaugural winner of the LVMH prize in 2014, Marques’Almeida (which was a semifinalist last year) is based in London. Though Mr. Almeida, who is 29, and Ms. Marques, 28, are Portuguese, both attended Central Saint Martins and studied under the late and legendary teacher Louise Wilson.

Their win suggests that the established fashion world is still looking to London for its new talent.

Even beyond their prizewinners, LVMH appointed the British designer Jonathan Anderson as the creative director of Loewe in 2013 and bought a majority stake in the young British shoe brand Nicholas Kirkwood the same year.

Marques’Almeida made its debut at London Fashion Week in 2011 and became known for its designers’ creative use of denim, though they are quick to point out that their ambitions and identity lie not with jeans, but high-end women’s wear.

It’s for a quietly defiant girl, they said of their slouchy frayed leathers, chiffons and satins: luxury with a Levi’s attitude.

They have five employees and 85 retail outlets. They are entirely self-funded, though they are quick to acknowledge past support from the British Fashion Council and its NewGen program and Fashion East, which helps new designers get on the London Fashion Week schedule.

They will show their first resort collection in June (“the first time we’ve gone beyond the straight two” runway seasons, Ms. Marques said) and plan to use their LVMH prize to create a “sustainable business.”