Dear Shaded Viewers,
The restaurant AU TOP’s rooftop felt suspended above Paris, more like a discreet observatory than a traditional launch venue, with the city’s lights stretching out in every direction. From this vantage point, ANDAM’s 2026 opening felt less like a formal announcement and more like a quiet power move: Ruinart Champagne in every hand, as always, quietly present whenever art and culture decide to collide and serious money being pledged to shape what fashion will look like next.
This was not a press release read from a podium; it was a negotiation with the future conducted over a cocktail dinatoire. ANDAM is placing 700,000 euros into the ecosystem this year, a deliberate shockwave meant to turn fragile ideas into resilient structures and to keep Paris at the center of fashion’s next chapter. Around the room, conversations jumped from mentorship and funding models to new materials and fashion tech, as if the industry’s moving parts had been compressed into one night in the sky.
The scale of the commitment is unmistakable. A 300,000‑euro Grand Prize, a 100,000‑euro Special Prize, plus three additional prizes – Pierre Bergé, Fashion Innovation, and Fashion Accessories, each backed with 100,000 euros – frame ANDAM not as a trophy machine but as a financial and strategic engine for young labels. A full year of mentorship attached to these prizes turns the evening from a celebration into a launchpad, with winners stepping into direct dialogue with industry leaders rather than simply posing for a photo.
What charged the atmosphere was the concentration of influence in the room. Public institutions and private giants – from the French Ministry of Culture and DEFI to AMI PARIS, BALENCIAGA, BUREAU BETAK, CHANEL, CHLOÉ, GALERIES LAFAYETTE, HERMÈS, INSTAGRAM, KERING, LACOSTE, LONGCHAMP, LVMH, L’ORÉAL PARIS, OTB, SAINT LAURENT, SWAROVSKI, WSN, KARLA OTTO and ZALANDO – were not just “supporters” but active co‑investors in what comes next. Their alignment around ANDAM turns this initiative into a collective stance on how fashion should respond to new economic, cultural and ecological pressures.
Under the open sky, the evening’s real topic was acceleration. Mentorship from figures such as Alexandre Mattiussi, Frédéric Maus, Pelagia Kolotouros and Yann Gozlan is conceived as hands‑on: helping designers navigate brand building, distribution, technology, and sustainability rather than leaving them to decode the system alone.
As the evening drew to a close on the rooftop, the focus naturally shifted to Nathalie Dufour, who this year celebrates her 37th year at the helm of ANDAM. What began as her vision in 1989 has become one of the most powerful engines for identifying, funding and structurally supporting new voices in fashion, ensuring that Paris remains not just a stage for established houses but a launchpad for those yet to be written into history.
In a landscape where many “initiatives” come and go with the seasons, Nathalie’s long-term commitment stands out: decades of cultivating alliances between public institutions, private groups and emerging designers, and turning ANDAM into an essential bridge between creativity and industry. If the 700,000 euros, the constellation of sponsors, and the mentorship ecosystem now attached to the prizes feel like a given, it is largely because she spent nearly four decades making this structure not only possible but indispensable.
Closing the night with her in the room, surrounded by designers, sponsors and cultural players, there was a quiet sense that everyone was standing inside the architecture she patiently built. The future-facing energy of the 2026 edition may belong to the next generation, but the framework that allows them to dare, experiment and grow is undeniably Nathalie Dufour’s legacy – one that has not just supported French fashion, but reshaped the way the industry thinks about nurturing talent on a global scale.
Later,
Diane
