Ahead of an announcement this week of the winner of the BFC/Vogue Designer Fashion Fund, the British Fashion Council has been touting British talent and the recipients of funding and support.
On Tuesday during an event at The Royal Academy, the BFC confirmed that it raised more than 2.3 million pounds in 2018 for its charities and business support initiatives. Of that figure, 1.1 million pounds will be allocated directly to designer businesses.
The remainder will go towards future-proofing the BFC designer charities in times of uncertainty and towards marketing activity for all the initiatives.
In the last year alone, the BFC said it increased the number of scholarships awarded by its Education Foundation from 11 to 21 and increased its financial commitment to students to more than 200,000 pounds.
During the morning, the BFC also announced a new round of NewGen sponsorship winners: Ahluwalia Studio, Art School, Asai, Bethany Williams, Bianca Saunders, Paria Farzaneh and Roker. One to Watch support has been awarded to Eftychia, who will be given exhibition space in the London Fashion Week Designer Showrooms in September.
NewGen sponsorship is awarded annually to women’s wear, men’s wear and accessories designers who will show at either LFW or LFW Men’s. The designers are allocated a dedicated pop-up showroom space and use it to host press and buyers’ appointments.
Existing NewGen designers include Alighieri, Charles Jeffrey Loverboy, Halpern, Matty Bovan, Richard Malone, Richard Quinn and Supriya Lele. Browns is an official partner of NewGen.
The shortlist for the BFC/GQ Designer Men’s Wear Fund supported by JD.com Inc. was also announced. The fund aims to discover new talent and accelerate growth through a 150,000 pounds cash prize and a 12-month mentoring program.
Shortlisted designers for that prize, which will be announced at the end of London Fashion Week Men’s, are A-Cold-Wall, Cottweiler, Daniel W. Fletcher, Edward Crutchley, Liam Hodges and Wales Bonner.
On Wednesday, the winner of 2019 BFC/Vogue Designer Fashion Fund contest will be announced and receive a cash prize of 200,000 pounds and mentoring support over the next 12 months.
As reported, the candidates are A.W.A.K.E Mode, Alighieri, Charles Jeffrey Loverboy, David Koma, Neous, Rejina Pyo and Wales Bonner.
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This story was reported by WWD and originally appeared on WWD.com.
