**2026 Vilcek Prizes for Creative Promise in Fashion & Design and Fashion & Culture**

The Vilcek Foundation will award six Vilcek Prizes for Creative Promise in the amount of $50,000 in two categories: Fashion & Design and Fashion & Culture. In each category, three young immigrant fashion professionals who demonstrate outstanding early achievement in their field will individually receive an unrestricted cash prize of $50,000.

  
Why Should You Apply

* Unrestricted cash prize of $50,000 is awarded to each prizewinner.
* Reflect on how your experience as an immigrant has shaped your success.
* Receive an invaluable endorsement from leaders in your field.
* Receive a comprehensive public relations campaign to promote you and your work.

  
**Eligible Categories:**

Fashion & Design:

* **Designers** – including but not exclusive to womenswear, menswear, nonbinary clothing, textile design (including print, embellishment, knitwear, original fabric making for fashion), and accessories including footwear, bags, jewelry, and other artifacts relating to the culture of fashion.
* **Environmental and Technology Designers** – environmental designers, sustainability experts, eco-conscious creators, and professionals designing wearable technologies.
* **Material Innovation** – professionals who develop new fabrics and innovative textile technologies such as smart textiles, eco-friendly fabrics, and new dyeing/surface application techniques for various sectors including but not exclusive to Uniforms, Athletics, Space, Medical, and Innovative Workwear.
* **Makeup Artists / Hair Stylists** – highly skilled artists and stylists who have achieved industry recognition for their work or experimental artists that push the breadth of materials used to both challenge and communicate perceived beauty ideals through the art and design of makeup or hair.

Fashion & Culture:

* **Writers and Researchers** –including academic (historical, theoretical, and anthropological), journalistic, critical, and editorial.
* **Curators and Museum Professionals** – including exhibitions, presentations, and displays through real and/or virtual environments. It could include preservation and conservation.
* **Stylists** –including editorials, advertising campaigns, and fashion presentations
* **Image Makers** – including fashion photography, film, animation, illustration, and work in fashion tech.

  

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