Who is going to succeed Anthony Vaccarello? Andam already started on January 27 the application process for its 2012 edition. The prestigious French fashion award is looking for its 23rd winner, but also for the 2nd winner of the ‘first collection’ prize, which was awarded for the first time last year to Chinese designer Yiqing Yin.

On the left: Anthony Vaccarello, last year's winner of the Andam award. On the right: Yiqing Yin, 2011 winner of the 'first collections' prize. Photo: Shoji Fujii

But this year’s prize is going to be breaking a record with the addition of a 230,000 euro reward for the biggest prize and 60,000 for the second. This is thanks to a (yet another) new partnership, this time with TheCorner.com (Yoox Group). The online sales website will allow the six final candidates (to be pre-selected in spring) to showcase their collections.

The mentor of the winner of this year’s Andam fashion award is going to be LVMH’s CEO Pierre-Yves Roussel.