Duran Lantink Wins the 2025 International Woolmark Prize

Update: Dutch designer Duran Lantink was named the winner of this year’s International Woolmark Prize in Milan on Wednesday evening. With the trophy, the burgeoning fashioner will receive a $300,000 AUD ($188,877 USD) cash prize, as well as support from Woolmark Prize retail partners.

“I’ve always been very obsessive about clothes,” Lantink said. “As a young child, I would sneak up into my mom’s room and I would start stealing her clothes and cutting them up and experimenting … I’m really about shape, and forms, and trying to create new ideas.”

Lantink used the $60,000 AUD (roughly $37,775 USD) Woolmark grant to create several knitwear pieces in his Fall 2025 “Duranimal” collection, including exoskeleton gowns knit by Dutch artisans in Amsterdam. Selected by an esteemed judging panel led by Donatella Versace and Ib Kamara, Lantink joins an esteemed roster of Woolmark Prize winners, which includes the likes of Saul Nash, Matty Bovan, Rahul Mishra, Gabriela Hearst, Karl Lagerfeld, Yves Saint Laurent and Valentino Garavani, among others.

Additionally, Pieter Mulier (creative director of Alaïa) took home the newly evolved Karl Lagerfeld Award for Innovation, which is presented to any brand or individual in the fashion sphere that has “pushed the boundaries of Merino wool innovation.” Notably, Alaïa’s Fall 2024 “One Yarn” collection was crafted entirely from a single Merino wool yarn.

“I am so honoured and happy to receive the inaugural Karl Lagerfeld Award for Innovation,” said Mulier. “At Alaïa, wool plays an important role in the search for innovation and modernity. In my Summer Fall 2024 collection, one single yarn was used as a full concept, pushing how the richness of
wool can be translated in all shapes, sizes, textures, and forms. Thank you so much, this truly means the world to us.”

Lastly, Südwolle Group received the 2025 Supply Chain Award for its ongoing commitment to innovation and product development.

Original Story: The International Woolmark Prize has revealed the eight finalists for the 2025 edition of the esteemed fashion award. This year’s contenders include ACT N°1 (Italy), Diotima (USA), Duran Lantink (The Netherlands), Ester Manas (Belgium), LGN Louis Gabriel Nouchi (France), Luar (USA), Meryll Rogge (Belgium), and Standing Ground (UK/Ireland).

Chosen from hundreds of applications, each designer will receive $60,000 AUD (roughly $37,775 USD) to develop six Merino wool looks either as part of their Fall/Winter 2025 collection or as a standalone project. Notably, Woolmark has appointed Ib Kamara, the editor-in-chief of Dazed and creative director of Off-White™, as the guest artistic director for the 2025 final event.

“I’m honored to be joining the amazing team at Woolmark for the 2025 Woolmark Prize, bringing fresh creativity as we celebrate these design talents,” Kamara said. “It’s so important that we nurture and inspire the talent who are shaping the future of the fashion industry, and I can’t wait to meet the finalists.”

He’ll be judging each designer’s work alongside an esteemed jury led by Donatella Versace. This year’s judging panel includes image architect Law Roach, Zegna’s Alessandro Sartori, BoF editor-at-large Tim Blanks, Titling the Lens founder Sinéad Burke, DJ and producer Honey Dijon, N21 founder Alessandro Dell’Acqua, Vanity Fair‘s Simone Marchetti, Saks’ Roopal Patel and stylist Danielle Goldberg.

All finalists will receive support from Woolmark’s Innovation Academy, which offers mentorship from industry heavyweights like Gabriella Karefa-Johnson, Sara Sozzani Maino, Burke, Patel, and Blanks. Additionally, each finalist will have the opportunity to be stocked at leading stores across the world.

The International Woolmark Prize is among the highest honors in fashion, previously won by the likes of Saul Nash, Matty Bovan, Rahul Mishra, Gabriela Hearst, Karl Lagerfeld, Yves Saint Laurent and Valentino Garavani, among others.

One designer will join the impressive roster in Milan on April 2, when this year’s International Woolmark Prize winner will be announced. Notably, the awarded designer will receive a $300,000 AUD ($188,877 USD) cash prize.