JAPANESE designer Masayuki Ino won the 2018 edition of the LVMH Prize for Young Designers with his streetwear label Doublet, underscoring the appeal of gender-neutral, casual designs for a new generation of consumers keen to shed traditional labels.

Emma Stone, speaking in French, announced the winner Wednesday at the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris in the presence of jury members including Karl Lagerfeld of Fendi, Dior designer Maria Grazia Chiuri, Louis Vuitton’s Nicolas Ghesquiere and Givenchy’s Clare Waight Keller.

Ino beat some 1,300 applicants to walk away with a grand prize of 300,000 euros (US$355,000), plus a year of coaching from experts at luxury giant LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton, parent of fashion houses including Vuitton, Loewe, Celine, Berluti and Marc Jacobs.

The runner-up special prize, presented by Jaden Smith, went to South Korean designer Rok Hwang’s London-based women’s wear label Rokh.

At 38, Ino was the oldest candidate among the nine finalists of this year’s edition of the prize. A graduate of Tokyo’s Mode Gakuen College of Fashion and Design, he worked as an accessories designer for Miharayasuhiro before launching Doublet in 2012 with a concept he summed up as “daily wear with strangeness.”

His graphic, tongue-in-cheek designs, such as sweatshirts featuring distorted riffs on varsity logos, have been worn by celebrities such as Travis Scott, Kendall Jenner and Liam Payne. The label received a major boost last year when it was one of six brands selected by the Tokyo Fashion Award, which promotes Japanese fashion overseas.

Doublet’s spring collection, stocked at Dover Street Market in London and 10 Corso Como in Shanghai, featured plastic-covered T-shirts. His presentation Wednesday included lenticular prints, tailored jackets made of selvage Harrisons cloth, and compression T-shirts that expand when soaked in water.

“I want customers to enjoy not only the buying experience, but to continue having fun after shopping. That’s why the packaging is important,” Ino said through an interpreter.

Ghesquiere said the jury was won over by the originality of the designs. “He’s unlike anyone else. It’s completely individual, and in his category — which can be loosely defined as sportswear, but in fact is so much more — there’s a quality of execution and a level of technical research that are really impressive,” he said. “What struck me during his presentation is that it’s one thing when you see his clothes on the hanger, but when you see them in movement, they take on a different life because they’re extremely light, and in that respect, very unique and modern,” Ghesquiere added.(SD-Agencies)