Front, L-R: Levi Palmer & Matthew Harding (palmer//harding), Megha Mittal, José Neves (Farfetch), Tania Fares (BFC Fashion Trust), Gareth Pugh, Luella Bartley (Hillier Bartley), Sid Bryan & Cozette McCreery (Sibling). Back, L-R: Paulo Almeida & Marta Marques (Marques'Almeida), Fyodor Podgomy (Fyodor Golan), Anna Laub (Prism), Eudon Choi, Holly Fulton, Huishan Zhang, Rejina Pyo, Caroline Rush CBE (British Fashion Council), Phoebe English.
The British Fashion Council (BFC) is pleased to announce that the BFC Fashion Trust has awarded grants totalling £350,000 between twelve designers: Eudon Choi, Fyodor Golan, Gareth Pugh, Hillier Bartley, Holly Fulton, Huishan Zhang, Marques’Almeida, palmer/harding, Phoebe English, Prism, Rejina Pyo and Sibling.
The Fashion Trust is a BFC charitable initiative founded in February 2011 to offer selected designers business support through mentoring and financial awards to promote the art and business of fashion. This philanthropic programme has been created and developed in partnership with its co-chairs Tania Fares and Kim Hersov, and the Fashion Trust Committee.
Tania Fares and Kim Hersov, said: “Once again we are delighted to support these talented designers for the year ahead. British fashion is globally recognised for its energy and originality which is why supporting the industry at grass roots is as vital as ever. These designers represent the future of the British fashion industry and we hope the Fashion Trust will further advance their position as global brands of the future.”
Caroline Rush CBE, CEO British Fashion Council, commented: “We are thrilled to be able to support these twelve designers through the BFC Fashion Trust this year. The generous support of the BFC Fashion Trust members and Farfetch continues to help in the development of these brands and we are extremely excited to see how this initiative further enables their creativity and growth”
In April 2016, Farfetch became the first official partner of the Fashion Trust. José Neves, CEO and Founder Farfetch said “We are so pleased to be supporting this extremely talented group of designers alongside the BFC Fashion Trust. We recognise how important it is to be supporting and nurturing design talent throughout the growth of their brand and hope that our team of experts advising on digital, e-commerce and global market expansion will prove invaluable to the development of each of them.”
Previous recipients of the Fashion Trust have used funds to develop stores, website/e-commerce and also in the production of pre-collections.
Photo credit: British Fashion Council, Darren Gerrish