During a break from the fall winter 2023 runway shows in Paris, our senior editor Taylore Scarabelli stopped by the LVMH Prize semifinalist showroom to check out this year’s contenders. Below, three finalists show off the top pieces from their collections.

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BURC AKYOL

TAYLORE SCARABELLI: Hi. I’m Taylore from Interview. I heard you have some really crazy stuff here.

AKYOL: Oh, thank you. Should we start with the metal hands bustier?

SCARABELLI: Okay.

AKYOL: These are my hands that we molded out of custom bronze. I made it in 2018, and it was worn by Cardi B and Cate Blanchett. 

SCARABELLI: Your hands have been all over the hottest celebrities.

AKYOL: [Laughs] During COVID time they were traveling literally more than all of us, all around the world.

SCARABELLI: Amazing.

AKYOL: Then I did this crazy helmet head piece with my feet molded. These were inspired—

SCARABELLI: You’re going to have to try that on for me.

AKYOL: It’s a little small for my head, but let’s give it a try.

SCARABELLI: Ooh!

AKYOL: So it’s literally a helmet, it’s like you’re wearing your fetish on your face.

SCARABELLI: Do you have a foot fetish?

AKYOL: I kind of do. I was thinking about why we have this toxic masculine desire when we all are educated about it, and I was like, “I’m going to wear it as a crown until I figure out all the answers.”

SCARABELLI: It was your thinking cap.

AKYOL: Yeah. And then you might have heard about this one, which is the faux fur coat.

SCARABELLI: Oh wow.

AKYOL: The silhouette comes out of the fur. I love the idea of shaping it so that you can’t really see the body. You’ll also find a Kepenek shoulder on this blazer that turns into a dress. You just have to unsnap or snap it.

SCARABELLI: Wow. I really like—wait, what do you call it?

AKYOL: Kepenek. It comes from a Turkish and Farsi coat that shepherds used to wear. It was this piece of square fabric that people would stitch in the back, and it would give you this origami shoulder. My father was a tailor, so he taught me how to do a lot of these things. And all these pieces I make myself in my studio in Paris.

SCARABELLI: Do you sketch as well?

AKYOL: I start always trying pieces on me to understand where I want to go with the silhouette of the season and then I’ll start sketching. Should I show you the yacht dress?

SCARABELLI: Yes. Show me more things.

AKYOL: Okay. So you’re on your yacht all day. You have your wet hair, you’re in a bathing suit. You want to do a Mariah Carey moment at night. You do the yacht dress. It’s this body that’s integrated. And inside, you can also wear tuxedo pants or the white tie denim, as I call them.

SCARABELLI: Ooh.

AKYOL: And I did this because I was so inspired by a piece that I made in my first collection, which were the tuxedo tights.

SCARABELLI: Those are so cute!

AKYOL: You have the satin bands here, which are now the satin bands that I always do. And it comes with this belt already attached, so you’re draping yourself.

SCARABELLI: I need these. I want to go out with no pants on.

AKYOL: Oh please. Just a big coat or a blazer. And that’s it.

SCARABELLI: That’s hot.

AKYOL: And it’s sophisticated and nonchalant and sexy. As a Turkish Oriental French person, I’m always trying to find the right balance between opulence and sophistication while being very nonchalant and easy and urban.

SCARABELLI: Yeah. It’s minimal, but it’s fun and sexy.

AKYOL: You want to give something to your client. It can’t be just a basic.

SCARABELLI: Show me some more. I’m into it. I need to see the rest.

AKYOL: Oh, have you seen, Kendall Jenner wore one of my dresses that was kind of like this one.

SCARABELLI: You know all the celebrity girls.

AKYOL: I’ve been dressing a lot of them because I’ve been in the business for 15 years. I know the stylists, and I reach out to them. She wore this to LACMA Awards. It was styled by Marni Senofonte. She was super sexy.

SCARABELLI: Wow. I never see her that sexy.

AKYOL: And then I did this version for my sales because, of course, sometimes you have to cover the girl.

SCARABELLI: Not everyone has a Kendall Jenner body.

AKYOL: And then we have all the ball skirt idea. It comes from these skirts that women working in the hammams in the Ottoman Empire would wear. It was just a sash with a belt. And inside they would have the oils to give to the clients who came to the hammam. I figured that the construction was really, really close to some skirts and gowns that I’ve seen in the ’40s haute couture in my research at the time. So I created these ideas for last summer. So it’s this big ball skirt and Olivia Culpo wore the dress version of that. But also there’s a minimalized version, which is really doable.

SCARABELLI: Oh.

AKYOL: It’s a palazzo pant with silk touches. It has the pockets. It has the same construction. So chic, right?

SCARABELLI: Very nice.

LUAR

TAYLORE SCARABELLI: There she is. 

RAUL LOPEZ:  Hi.

SCARABELLI: You have to walk me through the clothes. 

RAUL LOPEZ: So Swarovski made this Ana bag for the show. 40,000 stones, hand-placed by the gorgeous people of Swarovski. Thank you so much. And then we have this soft puff jacket.

SCARABELLI: Ooh. It has a bit of a Comme [Des Garcons] sleeve.

LOPEZ: Yeah.

SCARABELLI: But different. 

LOPEZ: She’s the one.

SCARABELLI: She’s cozy.

LOPEZ: And we have the caviar beauty.

SCARABELLI: Ooh, wow.

LOPEZ: That one has classic tailoring. Get into the details, darling. Look at the sleeves on it.

SCARABELLI: Oh, she’s sparkling. Stunning. Gorgeous, darling.

LOPEZ: Catch the light. Then the active wear. You have to have this. This is what sells, girl. This is the bread and butter.

SCARABELLI: You have this so you can do the tailoring.

LOPEZ: Exactly. And you have these skirts.

SCARABELLI: That was one of my faves actually, the houndstooth.  You should be wearing it with that jacket.

LOPEZ: I’m not trying to pop out.  And then these with the L collar.

SCARABELLI: Oh, and that was inspired by your grandma’s doily or…?

LOPEZ: Probably.

SCARABELLI: It’s so cute.

LOPEZ: Thank you. Skirt, shorts, goes like that.

SCARABELLI: Ooh, and she drags too. The luxury of having your clothes dragging on the floor is—

LOPEZ: That’s luxury. When your clothes drag on the floor, that means you have money, sweetie, because you can just  send it to the dry cleaner the next day.

SCARABELLI: You’re not worried. I’m not worried.

LOPEZ: The girl’s not worried. She got money.

SCARABELLI: Well, the final piece I want to see is this coat here. 

LOPEZ: This girl. 

SCARABELLI: Wow, the shoulder. 

LOPEZ: The boldest shoulder. With custom pads that we get made in—

SCARABELLI: That’s firm. 

LOPEZ: So it’s actually designed so your man can lay their head on the shoulders.

SCARABELLI: Aw, you could also play a football game in that.

LOPEZ: Period. And then there’s the gowns.

SCARABELLIE SCARABELLI: Ooh. I could never fit in that. I’m too short.

RAUL LOPEZ: Girl, put on a heel.

SCARABELLIE SCARABELLI: I need a really tall heel. Like a 10-inch heel.

RAUL LOPEZ: [Laughs]

BETTTER

JULIE PELIPAS: Here you can see what we can do with worn mens’ suits. 

SCARABELLI: That’s fun.

PELIPAS: You can wear this with any other trousers, actually, and it adds this layer. We also have this biker jacket. 

SCARABELLI: Oh, that looks like a Julia Fox outfit.

PELIPAS: This is my American Psycho shirt. 

SCARABELLI: Oh my god. Spooky. Did it come like that, or you distressed it yourself?

PELIPAS: No, no, no, I did it. I destroyed it myself. I had a very nice moment with that. So this is the corset made from belts. 

SCARABELLI: Wow. That looks hard to wear.

PELIPAS: It’s easy to wear, actually. It’s really easy. 

SCARABELLI: I guess you have good posture when you wear it.

PELIPAS: Yes. Also you control it, because you have holes. You can make it looser, because with corsets, you know, you can’t breathe. 

SCARABELLI: Oh, that’s true. Plus it’s easier to cinch it, you can do it yourself.  You don’t need someone to dress you like Marie Antoinette.

PELIPAS: You can do it completely yourself. You literally open this with the belts as you open the trousers.

SCARABELLI: Cute.

PELIPAS: These are the social distance trousers. They give you private space.

SCARABELLI: Wow. Yeah, no touch.

PELIPAS: They look complicated, but they’re quite simple, because you wear them with just the trousers. It doesn’t bring you discomfort.

SCARABELLI: But can you sit down?

PELIPAS: Yes, yes. We tested. And it goes with this shirt, where you can also control your boobs and where it sits. It works as a bustier.

SCARABELLI: No bra necessary. We love that.