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Her whimsical wardrobe, a breath of fresh air on the Parisian calendar since 2024, captivated the prestigious jury.
On September 4th at the Louis Vuitton Foundation, Julie Kegels received the ultimate prize from Jennifer Lawrence: the 2026 LVMH Prize . The members of the formidable jury, composed of leading figures from the group and the fashion world (from Phoebe Philo to Jonathan Anderson, from Michael Rider to Nicolas Ghesquière), selected the 27-year-old from Antwerp, alongside two other laureates: Yoshita 1967, winner of the Savoir-Faire Prize, and Lii, winner of the Karl Lagerfeld Prize . Surprised and then moved to tears, and generous in her thanks to her family and team, the young woman readily shared her immediate reactions, barely offstage. And just before heading home to Antwerp, where her next show for Paris Fashion Week is being prepared. With the statue already packed in her suitcase, here’s a quick recap of the experience.
George V Magazine: How did your presentation to the jury go?
Julie Kegels: It was very intense because I was nervous. Public speaking isn’t really my thing, especially when it’s with people you’ve admired for so long. But in the end, it felt very natural. I was just able to tell my story, what we do, what we want to do. Looking back, it’s incredible, it was an extraordinary opportunity to have been there. And to win!
GVM: What topics did you discuss?
JK: Actually, there weren’t that many questions. It was more about telling my story, what I do, who I design for, and also business aspects, of course, like my stores and how I approach them. For me, for example, it’s very important to have a close relationship with the stores; last year, we visited many to see and understand their way of doing things, as well as the customers who buy the clothes. It was very interesting. We see that our growing presence on social media has an impact on our online store, and it’s incredible to see because these are people who really love our collections. We’re also seeing orders coming in from cities where there aren’t any stores that carry our clothes, and there are many cities, you know, where we still have stores to open.
GVM: How do you plan to use the LVMH prize donation?
JK: I think we’ll take it one step at a time and continue doing what we’re currently doing. What we’ve seen over the last six months is that we’re a young team, we have a lot of energy and ambition—sometimes maybe a little too much—and we tend to think there are more hours in a day than there actually are. We’ve done a lot of things, a lot of activations. We felt we weren’t enough people and also that there might be some missing profiles within the company. So we might tweak the structure a bit and expand the team, but very slowly. One more person, for now, would already be fantastic.
GVM: Do you ever plan to take a position in a fashion house?
JK: No, I wouldn’t know how to do it right now. This company is very young; we still need to nurture it and make it solid, stable, and sustainable. We only started three and a half years ago, so it requires a lot of attention and energy, and everything has to go into it.
GVM: You were very emotional on stage, what were you thinking?
JK: Yes… Actually, I don’t know… there wasn’t any particular thought, it was just… emotion.
GVM: How are you going to celebrate this?
JK: For now, we are packing our bags and tomorrow we are going home, back to normal life, we have a fashion show soon, on September 28th.