Christopher Kane wins $320,000 fashion prize

(AFP PHOTO/Carl de Souza)

British designer Christopher Kane has been announced as the winner of the British Fashion Council/ Vogue Designer Fashion Fund, receiving £200,000 ($320,000) and industry mentoring for a year.

London-based Kane, who follows in Erdem's footsteps, beat out E. Tautz, Nicholas Kirkwood, Osman Yousefzada, Charlotte Olympia, Jonathan Saunders, and Peter Pilotto in this second edition of the competition.

Inspired by the US Vogue Designer Fashion Fund, the prize was inaugurated last year with a jury including British Vogue editor Alexandra Shulman and Joan Burstein, a buyer for the Browns department store.

Critical commentators will argue that designers such as Yousefzada or Pilotto would have needed the support more than Kane who counts the likes of designer Donatella Versace or US Vogue editor Anna Wintour among his most loyal fans. A similar debate was waged when industry darling Hakaan won the French ANDAM prize last year.