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"  Photo: Billy Farrell Agency Sports nuts have the World Cup. J.Law has The Hunger Games. And fashion has the International Woolmark Prize, a global competition that drafts emerging talent into a major style smackdown. Each entrant must use Merino wool to create one look, then face a panel of expert judges, including CFDA CEO Steven Kolb, Saks Fifth Avenue fashion director Colleen Sherin, and designer Alexander Wang. When one Tribute\u2014sorry, label\u2014scores the regional crown, they head into battle again, this time against every global champion. The stakes are high\u2014$50,000 and industry mentoring\u2014and the prestige is major, since the contest&amp;#039;s first-ever winners were Karl Lagerfeld, then 23, and an 18-year-old Yves Saint Laurent. Perhaps that explains why, despite the day&amp;#039;s 85-degree humidity, designers like Misha Nonoo, Rosie Assoulin, and Timo Weiland were decked out in wool ensembles at Milk Studios. &amp;quot;With air conditioning, you can&amp;#039;t even tell,&amp;quot; Weiland insisted, while Nonoo admitted with a grin, &amp;quot;It could also just be nerves.&amp;quot; Thankfully, the tension didn&amp;#039;t last long\u2014a few vodka shots later, Woolmark announced the winners: Public School (for menswear) and M. Patmos (for womenswear). &amp;quot;We did not know we were going to get this,&amp;quot; insisted designer Maxwell Osborne. &amp;quot;They told all the designers to prepare a speech in case we won\u2014we didn&amp;#039;t do that! And when we had to present our wool design to the judging panel this morning, it felt like as big a deal as the CFDA Awards&amp;quot; (which, if you&amp;#039;ll recall, they also won). &amp;quot;We&amp;#039;re really proud, obviously,&amp;quot; co-designer Dao-Yi Chow added, &amp;quot;because we feel like Woolmark isn&amp;#039;t just acknowledging our design, they&amp;#039;re giving us credit for the work behind the designs\u2026 really, the award we should get is for never going on vacation!&amp;quot; Marcia Patmos disagreed\u2014after all, if it weren&amp;#039;t for vacation, she might not have won the Woolmark Prize at all. &amp;quot;My wool look was inspired by a woman who goes on vacation and has her luggage lost,&amp;quot; she laughed, &amp;quot;which has happened to me many times! Usually when I&amp;#039;m going to Italy. And then there&amp;#039;s that thing where you have to repurpose what you have. It&amp;#039;s a pain, but it makes you think about your clothes in a new way, which might be when something magic happens.&amp;quot; Patmos then turned to her model\u2014Maria Senko, swathed in the winning Merino wool design\u2014and asked if she was too hot in her clearly-for-winter wardrobe. &amp;quot;I&amp;#039;m good,&amp;quot; Senko assured her. &amp;quot;They cranked the air conditioning so high in here, it&amp;#039;s actually really nice!&amp;quot; Magic, indeed.  Photo: Billy Farrell Agency "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.elle.com/fashion/news/a25659/woolmark-prize-public-school-m-patmos/>