Woolmark Announces U.S. Nominees for the International Woolmark Prize

The Woolmark Company announced its U.S. nominees for the International Woolmark prize today, April 29. This year’s menswear nominees include Cadet, David Hart, Lucio Castro, Siki Im and Thaddeus O’Neil.

U.S. nominees will present sketches of a six-outfit capsule collection, with one full look produced. These will be judged by a panel of experts (to be announced soon) at an event in New York City on July 21, where the U.S. finalist will be named.

The finalists from each of the competition’s six regions (USA, Europe, British Isles, India/Middle East, Australia, Asia) will meet at Pitti Uomo, Florence in January 2016, where the winner will be awarded with an $80,200 prize to “assist with fabric sourcing and marketing their collection.” The winning collections will also be picked up by international retail partners including Harvey Nichols, Saks Fifth Avenue and 10 Corso Como.

Public School, who’s founders were just named the new creative directors at DKNY, and M.Patmos (respective men’s and women’s finalists for the 2014/15 USA IWP regional prize) went on to win the IWP global competition last year.

The prize, first held in 1953 as an initiative of the International Wool Secretariat, has been won by an impressive alumni including Karl Lagerfeld and Yves Saint Laurent, and was revived in 2012 both to promote talented up and coming designers, and to showcase the benefits of working with Australian Merino wool.