On Thursday March 15th 2012, the 2nd edition of the Cultuurfonds Mode Stipendium was granted to men’s wear designer Francisco van Benthum. The Cultuurfonds Mode Stipendium was established by the Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds in 2011. The stipendium includes a grant of €50.000. This is the highest grant made available to individual fashion designers in The Netherlands.
The first recipient of the grant was fashion designer Ilja Visser. Francisco van Benthum graduated from the master course Fashion Institute Arnhem in 1999. Already from the start of his career he managed to put his mark on Dutch men’s wear DNA. Van Benthum’s oeuvre can be considered national cultural heritage with an international reach because of the structural manner in which he breaches the conventions of men’s fashion and the way he elevates experiment to a high quality product. Van Benthum is the thriving force behind his own luxury men’s label ‘Francisco van Benthum’.
All images © RVDA