Alexandre Mattiussi's new menswear collection won the ANDAM Fashion Award 2013

The 'Association Nationale pour le Développement des Arts de la Mode' / 'National Association for the Development of the Fashion Arts' (ANDAM) is a non profit organization, established in 1989.

It organizes annual international competitions for finding and supporting young designers from the French and International fashion scene. It gives to the winners a foothold on the official Paris Fashion Week, and contributes to the dynamism of the fashion sector in France.

Over the years, the ANDAM Fashion Award has became a respected benchmark for fashion professionals and members of the international press.

Since 2005 the competition is opened to international candidates. This broader scope enables it to rival the most prominent international fashion awards.

On July 4th, 2013 were announced the winners of this year's award. The 'Grand Prix', with € 250.000 endowment, went to Alexandre Mattiussi for his ready-to-wear menswear line 'AMI'. The 'First Collections Prize' was granted to Christine Phung who received € 75.000.

Let's learn something more about the Grand Prix's winner and his collection:
Established in 2011, 'AMI' gave its sixth-ever presentation in Paris at the end of June 2013, and less than a week later it won the 'Grand Prix' award.

Alexandre Mattiussi, 32, has started designing menswear for Dior at 21, went to work on Givenchy's men's collection at 24, and then joined Marc Jacobs at 28 before breaking off to begin work on 'AMI' a year later in 2009.

We must admit that he had a bit of a head start, because between his stints at Dior and Givenchy, Mattiussi sold his own line of tees and casual shirts.

'I love to mix classical and casual things together. I love to mix jackets and tailoring with jeans and chinos, making everything very Parisian in a way, but in a very cool way.
Not a fashion statement, nothing pretentious or too sophisticated, but just a cool attitude and a wardrobe that you could wear every day. So since the beginning we (me and my team) have just decided to have fun and make clothes that we want to wear. I'm not trying to conceptualize. I'm not trying to intellectualize.
The people who inspire me are very close to me. I don't really look at books and movies and such for collections, because I never feel inspired by something that doesn't really exist. I'm inspired by the people I love - my friends. We have a conversation every season about what they want to wear. Fashion is part of our lives now. It's something that men are very interested in.
I think menswear gives you a kind of reality about fashion. I feel like there's something very authentic about it. In 10 years you can really see how the young people in Paris have changed their style. Now, even the young guys, they'll wear a jacket with a pair of shoes - leather derbies or something - when 10 years ago we just wore trainers, or, I don't know, Palladium or Converse', said the designer.

Congratulations to the winners!