mobanmarketThe British Fashion Council’s charitable initiative BFC Fashion Trust
has named designers Molly Goddard, Eudon Choi, Marta Jakubowsk, Paula Knorr
and Roberts|Wood as the new recipients of the 2019 grant, which will see
them joining Aries and Nabil Nayal, who were added the scheme last year.
This year’s designers will receive financial grants and business
mentoring tailored to specific business needs and awarded to fund key areas
of expansion and will take a share of the allocated 400,000 pounds for the
2019 grant.
The structured mentoring programme delivered by the British Fashion
Council will offer the designers “international expertise and mentoring”
from BFC Fashion Trust’s official partners HSBC and Revlon Professional, as
well as legal advice from Taylor Wessing, digital training from Google, and
mentoring on sustainability and industry best practice from Livia Firth and
her team at Eco-Age. In addition, they will receive support from Farfetch,
Launchmetrics and the rest of the British Fashion Council’s Fashion
Business Network.
In addition to the trust recipients, the British Fashion Council also
stated that designers Hillier Bartley, Huishan Zhang, Mother of Pearl,
Paper London and Sharon Wauchob will also receive mentoring.
Since the initiative was founded in 2011, the BFC Fashion Trust has
awarded more than 2 million pounds to 42 businesses, helping designer
brands to fund the implementation of practical solutions such as
introducing new capsule collections and producing additional samples sets
and to enable long term strategic plans involving as e-commerce,
intellectual property, merchandising and finance.
Molly Goddard and Eudon Choi to join BFC Fashion Trust initiative
The BFC Fashion Trust is part of a group of British Fashion Council
business support initiatives and charities aimed at supporting British
talent from college to fashion start-ups through to future global fashion
houses. Last month, the fashion organisation announced that in 2018 it
raised over 2.3 million pounds for its charities and business support
initiatives out of which 1.1 million pounds will be allocated directly to
scholars and designer businesses.
BFC Fashion Trust co-chairs Tania Fares and Sian Westerman said in a
statement: “Thanks to the generosity and commitment from the BFC Fashion
Trust’s patrons and partners, we can continue to offer financial and
mentoring support to some of the best UK’s design talent and help them
develop their creative identity while turning their brands into global
businesses.”
Stephanie Phair, BFC chair added: “London is a city that has a special
reputation for producing some of the fashion industry’s brightest new
talents. Thanks to the BFC Fashion Trust and their partners’ generous
support and mentoring, the 2019 grant recipients are given the opportunity
to become the creative leaders of tomorrow while reinforcing the UK’s
reputation as a hub for fashion business.”
In addition to the grants, the BFC Fashion Trust supports a graduate
traineeship programme which offers graduates 12-month paid placements with
a British based designer. The programme has the dual benefit of allowing
graduates to gain insight and experience and for the designer’s business to
benefit from additional support. Previously partnered brands have included
E.Tautz, Erdem, House of Holland, JW Anderson, Mary Katrantzou and
Roksanda.
Image: courtesy of the British Fashion Council; Megha Mittal, Stephanie
Phair, Tania Fares and Sian Westerman with the 2019 BFC Fashion Trust Grant
Recipients at Sushi Samba, Covent Garden, London by photographer James
Peltekian.