Woolmark and the Gang

On Monday night, the International Woolmark Prize, a competition that supports and challenges up-and-coming labels to create innovative wool garments, presented two awards, one for men’s wear and one for women’s wear, at Milk Studios. This year’s competition featured an array of innovations in men’s wear by A.A. Antonio Azzuolo, Public School, Ovadia & Sons, Todd Snyder, and Timo Weiland; and women’s wear by M. Patmos, Nonoo, Jonathan Simkhai, Whit, and Rosie Assoulin. Ultimately, the panel of judges—which included W Editor in Chief Stefano Tonchi, CFDA CEO Steven Kolb, and designer Alexander Wang—selected Public School, whose designers Maxwell Osborne and Dao-Yi Chow created a conceptual look for the “super past or super future”, and Marcia Patmos, who created a look for an architect traveling through many different climates. (“In case she loses her luggage, she has everything on her,” the designer explained.) As the regional winners for the USA, not only will the two labels receive $47,000 cash sponsorships and have their capsule collections stocked in the organization’s partner stores, they will also compete for the International Woolmark Prize. “To be able to represent your country globally is really cool,” said Public School’s Chow. Added Osborne: “It’s like the World Cup.”