French Culture Minister Pledges New Measures for Young Designers

Alex Wynne

24 January 2025 at 6:22 am·3-min read

PARIS — On the sidelines of the Fédération de la Haute Couture et de la Mode’s Sphere showroom for emerging brands at the Palais de Tokyo Thursday afternoon, France’s Culture Minister, Rachida Dati, pledged new support for young design talent in the French capital.

“Whenever people think about France, they think about fashion,” Dati said to gathered journalists. “When people think about Paris, they think about fashion, about luxury, about lifestyle. For the Ministry of Culture, supporting young designers is supporting culture and heritage.”

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The initiative involves providing help for fashion creatives on the official Paris calendar with finding venues for shows and presentations, seen as a clear barrier to growing their profiles, as well as the creation of new bursaries offering financial support. The ministry will work hand in hand with the FHCM to identify spaces for young designers to showcase their work.

“There are very few places open to them, a lot of doors are closed when you are not well-known. It’s our role to offer them places where they can show during [Paris Fashion Week] and we are preparing by looking for places for shows, exhibitions or showrooms,” Dati said.

There will also be the creation of a one-month fashion residence at the Villa Medici, home of the French Academy in Rome, with a bursary of 10,000 euros, and three new grants for textile creatives. The first, for costume design, is worth 20,000 euros. Two awards of 10,000 euros each a year over three years will be created for research into fashion heritage and fashion innovation, respectively.

The Culture Ministry is also redefining the criteria of its annual fashion-related call for projects, worth 200,000 euros, to prioritize young designers on the French fashion scene and help them grow their visibility, it said.

With many young designers struggling to stay afloat since the pandemic due to a combination of inflationary pressures and the closure of a number of the retail heavyweights that had been their main buyers, the new support is welcome news.

Known to be a fashion lover with a keen eye for detail, Dati took a tour of the showroom to meet the designers and discover their creations before she addressed the press.

She asked designers questions about the technical processes and crafts behind their creations. “It’s very beautiful,” she said as she touched the lace of a dress from Les Fleurs Studio. At Lagos Space Program, she held up designs against her body and said, “I’m doing a bit of shopping,” admiring the brand’s combination of originality and wearability. At Ouest Paris, she inspected the details of tailoring and discussed printing techniques with Victor Koehler and Victoria Baia, the designers behind La Cage.

The brands showing at Sphere this season are Bianca Saunders, Lazoschmidl, Lagos Space Program and Ouest Paris, as well as Les Fleurs Studio, Cachì, C.R.E.O.L.E and La Cage.

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