PARIS, France — Chris Gelinas, Gabriele Colangelo, Hood by Air's Shayne Oliver, Jacquemus' Simon Porte, Nikita and Tina Sutradhar of Miuniku, Thomas Tait, Tillmann Lauterbach, Tim Coppens, Simone Rocha, Suno's Erin Beatty and Max Osterweis, Vika Gazinskaya and Atto's Julien Dossena; these are the 12 shortlisted designers for the inaugural LVMH Prize.

"There was a draw between four of the designers, and as a result we have decided to proceed with 12 finalists, instead of the original ten," explained Delphine Arnault in a note to the expert panel, who helped to narrow down the field from the original shortlist of thirty designers, representing 16 countries, drawn from 1,221 applications that came in from around the world.

At a cocktail evening during Paris Fashion Week, when these talents were exposed to the sheer power of the expert panel and all-star designer jury, they were bowled over. One after the other, they said that they had never been exposed to so many influential and powerful people from the fashion industry – they're idols – all at once. One young designer was even found lying on the ground in her presentation stall in the heart of the LVMH headquarters, by expert panellist Julie Gilhart. She was trying to take it all in, having met Karl Lagerfeld, Kanye West, Anna Wintour and Nicolas Ghesquière in quick succession.

On 28 May, the finalists will meet with an all-star jury of LVMH designers who will make the final selection with Pierre-Yves Roussel, Jean-Paul Claverie, and Delphine Arnault.

Disclosure: LVMH is part of a consortium of investors which has a minority stake in The Business of Fashion.