Maison Mode Méditerranée reveals names of OpenMyMed Prize 2020-21 winners

By

Dominique Muret

Translated by
Nicola Mira

Published
Feb 27, 2020

Marseilles-based fashion organisation Maison Mode Méditerranée (MMM) continues its activity in support of emerging designers, introducing a few changes to its programme. Last year, it celebrated the OpenMyMed Prize’s 10th anniversary by highlighting the work of 30 of its former winners, but this year it has adopted a more selective approach. For the prize’s 2020-21 edition, MMM has selected 13 emerging labels.
 

MMM has also decided to extend its mentorship of the 13 names selected - on marketing, promotional and commercial strategies - from one to two years, “in order to provide a more in-depth, enduring support,” as MMM stated in a press release. The 13 emerging fashion and accessories labels come from nine Mediterranean and African countries. They will attend the MMM Fashion Academy, with sessions in Marseilles from June 15 to 19 2020, and in Paris, in June 2021.
 
Among the names in the OpenMyMed Prize’s 2020-21 cohort, Californian designer Quoï Alexander, a graduate of London’s Central St Martins who has been based in Paris since 2014 and was featured at the Designers Apartment showroom, and Flore Girard de Langlade. Marseilles-born de Langlade is a graduate of Geneva’s HEAD art and design academy, and last year she created a capsule collection for La Redoute. For the first time since the prize was launched in 2010, a Senegalese label has been selected. It is Romzy, by young Dakar-based designer Roméo Moukagny Mindobo.

The other labels selected are Mlle 3D and Tata Christiane from Marseilles, Marija Kulusic (Croatia), Reform Studio (Egypt), Melissanthi Spei (Greece), Darin Hachem (Italy), Ahmed Amer and Renaissance (Lebanon), Katty Xiomara (Portugal) and Ali (Tunisia).
 
This year, the MMM Fashion Academy, which manages the OpenMyMed prize’s endowment, will be led by Ali Rakib. Rakib has studied anthropology and founded Forweavers, a start-up which selects and sources rare, eco-sustainable textile raw materials. He is a sourcing specialist and collaborates with Chanel and LVMH.