Couture designer Iris van Herpen from the Netherlands has won the Grand Prix at the prestigious 2014 Association Nationale de Développement des Arts de la Mode (ANDAM) Fashion Awards, bagging a prize money of €250,000, €10,000 of crystals from Swarovski to use on her pieces, as well as a year of mentoring from François-Henri Pinault, Kering Chairman and CEO. Amongst other benefits, she also gets an exclusive space in Galeries Lafayette's flagship store in Paris to present two collections as well as getting stocked by Canadian department store Hudson's Bay.

Previous ANDAM winners have included Anthony Vaccarello, Jeremy Scott and Viktor & Rolf. This year, van Herpen beat off tough competition from Etudes Studio, Rad Hourani, Jean-Paul Lespagnard, Fausto Puglisi, Steven Tai and Yiqing Yin for the award.

The couturier who is already a trailblazer in the fashion industry, using 3D printing in her designs, was featured in our magazine at: http://senatus.net/article/iris-van-herpen-showcases-haute-couture-3d-printing/