British Fashion Council Names Trust Winners

The British Fashion Council last night announced the recipients of its Fashion Trust financial and mentoring support scheme. Nine London labels will be sharing the prize of £300,000, as well as top mentoring to help the brands achieve new levels of success.

The winners were David Koma, Emilia Wickstead, Holly Fulton, Marios Schwab, Mother of Pearl, Palmer//Harding, Prism, Sibling and Sophia Webster, with the British Fashion Council holding a summer lawn party to celebrate the designers and their efforts. “Their fashion labels have shown exciting growth and both individually and collectively their businesses reinforce the UK’s reputation for creative strength,” said Caroline Rush CBE, chief executive of the BFC. “We need to support the industry at its grassroots. The Fashion Trust will continue to support talented designer labels so that the U.K. can continue to build the brands of the future,” added Tania Fares and Kim Hersov, co-chairs of the BFC Fashion Trust, to WWD.

Initiated in 2011, the Fashion Trust scheme’s previous winners have included the likes of Christopher Kane, Jonathan Saunders, House of Holland, Marios Schwab, Mary Katrantzou, Nicholas Kirkwood, Osman, Peter Pilotto, Richard Nicoll and Roksanda Ilincic, all of whom have gone on to achieve monumental success. “The support of the BFC Fashion Trust came at a crucial time for us,” said Ilincic of the help that the prize afforded her brand. “We were focusing on the business and commercial aspects of the company, and the opening of our first store, when the trust introduced myself and my team to talented mentors and advisers. The platform they have created with access to extremely influential people in the industry is invaluable for growing British designers like myself,” she added.

The party also saw the official announcement of of the Graduate Traineeship Programme, which will offer BA and MA design graduates the chance of applying to a yearly placement with one of London Fashion Week’s designers.