The youngest nomination in the prestige LVMH fashion competitionVejas Kruszewski receives the 2016 special prize. Exploring both gender fluidity and a rigid sense of construction—the latter, no doubt, a remnant from his self-taught education via Japanese patterning magazines—the 19-year-old Canadian calls to mind a clashing vulnerability that edges on both hard and soft for his eponymous label. Here, photographer Étienne Saint-Denis takes an intimate look at Vejas Fall/Winter 2016 for Document. A token from a lifelong collection of snippets kept by the designer, “remember when the earth would quake between my thighs,” it is in these anonymous words that we’ll begin.

 

Photography Étienne Saint-Denis. Styling Lu Philippe Guilmette. Creative Direction Melissa Matos at Trusst. Make-Up Andrew Ly at Trusst. Make-Up Assitant Ashley Diabo at Dulcedo. Casting Director Edward Kim at The Edit Desk. Director of Production Guillaume Laflamme. Production L’éloi. Models Nykhor Paul at Wilhelmina, Isham at Faces Mgmt, Mélodie at  Dulcedo.