One thing’s for certain, the BFC certainly has initiative and as of this week, they have a brand new one in place as well. This comes after this week’s launch of the BFC Contemporary initiative, in partnership with Ebay, followed by the announcement of a large host of recipients comprised of young designers who will work closely with the BFC to support and build their strategies. The new initiative promises to strengthen the UK’s contemporary ready-to-wear and accessory efforts by providing participants, selected due to creative excellence, commercial potential and originality, with highly motivational mentoring programmes.
Devised in response to increasing demand for contemporary fashion the world over, branding concepts, production budgets, scalability and all the likes will be the order of the day, and will come right from the industry specialist’s mouth, tailored to the singular needs of each designer.
(From left): Anna Laub of Prism, Alexis Barrell, Caroline Rush, Melanie Smallwood,
Philippa Thackerey, Lea Carreno of Paper London and Georgia Hardinge. (Zoe Jordan is not pictured.)
The five that make up 2014’s BFC Contemporary initiative, Alexis Barrell, Georgia Hardinge, Paper London, Prism and Zoë Jordan, have now been challenged with creating a limited edition item that epitomises their personal aesthetic, which will eventually be up for grabs during a limited run on the first ever BFC Contemporary Shop on Ebay. The second union between Britain’s fashion council and the archetypal e-commerce giant has resulted in positive outlooks all round, from the BFC’S Caroline Rush commenting that the “designers mark a new wave in British contemporary fashion”, to Melanie Smallwood, head of curation and merchandising at Ebay, chipping in to express how proud Ebay is to be sponsoring the initiative.
So look out for the BFC’s first retail venture on Ebay, located within the new Fashion Collective destination on the site, though for those more interested in how this scheme could relate to their design future, you will just have to wait until official open applications are opened to new entrants early next year.
by Liam Feltham
Images courtesy of the BFC