Mohamed Benchellal wins Fashion Stipend Netherlands 2023

Designer Mohamed Benchellal, alumnus of the fashion academy Mode Lyceum in Amsterdam, has won the 'Fashion Stipend' ('Modestipendium') 2023 incentive prize. The winner was announced at the annual award ceremony on Wednesday evening. The Moroccan-Dutch designer accepted the prize at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.

Not only did the designer receive the honour associated with the incentive prize, he also received a cash sum of 50,000 euros that will enable him to further develop artistically and professionally. Benchellal is the twelfth recipient of the award.

Benchellal came into contact with clothes and textiles at an early age. His grandparents had a home workshop. According to the jury of the Cultuurfonds Mode Stipendium, here he was "nurtured from an early age by both the materials and techniques he saw around him and the work ethic and values he inherited from home".

Benchellal continued his career at the Mode Lyceum in Amsterdam and set up his own fashion house Benchellal in 2015. The designer previously took home the Vogue Fashion Prize 2020 and the Emigala 2022 Fashion Innovation Award.

About the Fashion Stipend

The Netherlands' Culture Fund Fashion Stipend was set up in 2011 by an anonymous patron at the Culture Fund (formerly Prince Bernhard Culture Fund, the name changed in 2023).

The incentive prize for exceptionally talented and advanced Dutch fashion designers consists of a financial contribution of 50,000 euros and a challenge trophy designed by Ted van Noten.

The Prince Bernhard Culture Fund has selected the Dutch Fashion Foundation as its partner for the implementation of the Culture Fund Fashion Stipend.

Previous winners of the Fashion Stipend include well-known Dutch fashion designers such as Claes Iversen, Jan Taminiau, Maison the Faux, Erik Frenken, Bas Kosters, Ronald van der Kemp and Iris van Herpen.

This article was originally published on FashionUnited.NL, and has been translated and edited from Dutch into English by Veerle Versteeg.