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What do Christian Dior, Salvatore Ferragamo, Coco Chanel, Yves Saint Laurent, Giorgio Armani, Karl Lagerfeld (twice), Miuccia Prada, Oscar de la Renta, Ralph Lauren, and Estée Lauder all have in common? They’re all past recipients of the Neiman Marcus Award for Distinguished Service in the Field of Fashion, and Brunello Cucinelli will be the next to join the esteemed group of fashion notables.
The award — once the most storied fashion prize in the US — was launched in 1938 and has been on hold since 2016, when Carolina Herrera took home its William King-designed statue. In 2023, the award will return, rebooted to suit the post-lockdown retail landscape.
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Announcing its return today, Neiman Marcus CEO Geoffroy van Raemdonck said that the award is central to the retailer’s ambition to “revolutionise luxury experiences” through “retail-tainment”.It’s growing as well, under the new Neiman Marcus Group Awards moniker: a second prize named the Neiman Marcus Award for Creative Impact in the Field of Fashion has been added to recognise and nurture upcoming brands.
“We define ourselves as being in the relationship business. That relationship with our customers is best exemplified by the fact that 2 per cent of our customers drive 40 per cent of our sales: this shows that customers have so much trust in us that they entrust us with all their luxury purchases,” says Van Raemdonck on the power of the prize format. “And we also have deep relationships with brands: we take great pride that they entrust us to represent them in order to create a branded moment, a piece of retail-tainment or an exclusive, for our customers.”
Therefore when a brand accepts a Neiman Marcus Award — and the depth of partnership that goes hand-in-hand with it — this signals to the customer in a retail market awash with luxury wholesalers, both online and physical, that the 115-year-old Dallas, Texas-based retailer has a deep and privileged connection with the brands whose goods they offer. It’s the only retailer in the US to honour designers with an award; industry prizes are typically given out by governing bodies like the Council of Fashion Designers of America and, in the UK, the British Fashion Council. The LVMH Prize is the luxury conglomerate’s platform for recognising talent.
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