Lora Sonney wins Ami x IFM entrepreneurship prize

Designer Lora Sonney has won the Ami x IFM Entrepreneurship Award for her eponymous ready-to-wear brand. Sonney will receive a year's mentoring and 20,000 euros in financial support for her business.

For the third edition of the Ami x IFM Entrepreneurship Prize, the jury has rewarded the brand Lora Sonney. Aged under 30, the young designer has already been a finalist in the Hyères competition for young designers and has been selected to design a capsule collection for AZ Factory in 2023.

Following a call for entries at the end of 2023 from around thirty students and entrepreneurs from the IFM's Fashion Entrepreneurship Center, ten projects were shortlisted for the Ami x IFM Prize. These included six collaborative projects between entrepreneurs and students, and four projects led by students alone. For six months, the ten groups were challenged by experts on their concept, digital strategy, marketing plan and business model.

The jury decided to award the prize to Lora Sonney, who will be mentored for a year, in turn by the members of the jury who nominated her, as well as receiving financial support worth 20,000 euros.

The jury also awarded a ‘ Special Favourite’ prize to the Arntreal brand, designed by Andrea Albrizio. To develop his project, he will receive financial support worth 10,000 euros.

This year's jury was made up of Alexandre Mattiussi, Nicolas Santi-Weil, Jenke Ahmed Tailly, Laurence Benaïm, Elena Carrettoni, Clara Cornet, Nathanaël Karmitz, Arthur Robert and Alexander Werz.

The Ami x IFM Entrepreneurship Prize was awarded for the first time in June 2022. The award is cross-disciplinary, involving a range of courses offered by the Institut Français de la Mode (masters and bachelors in Management and Design, as well as entrepreneurs from the IFM Incubator): all students can take part.

This article was originally published on FashionUnited.FR. Translation and edit from Dutch into English by Veerle Versteeg.