Dutch-Moroccan Designer Wins Top Netherlands Fashion Prize

From the Netherlands, Mohamed Benchellal honors Morocco. On Wednesday, he won the 2023 Fashion Stipend at the annual awards ceremony at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, becoming the 12th recipient. In addition to the award, he also received a check for 50,000 euros to further develop his artistic and professional career, Fashion United reports.

The Fashion Stipend jury was seduced by his "ode to sublimation, beauty and poetry that traditional sewing traditionally represents." "It is solely through his own merits and with relentless ambition that this designer has established himself on the international sewing map in a decade, with great names and considerable distinctions supporting his success," it asserts, also noting that Mohammed has been initiated into fashion from a very young age, with his grandparents having a workshop at home. He was "nourished from an early age both by the materials and techniques he saw around him, as well as by the work ethic and values he inherited from home."

A graduate of the Amsterdam Mode Lyceum fashion academy, Mohamed Benchellal created his own couture house in 2015. Over the years, he has established himself in the fashion world. His creations have earned him several accolades. He received the Vogue Fashion Prize in 2020, the Emigala Fashion Innovation Award in 2022 and was included in the Business of Fashion’s top 500.