Newsletter
The Art for the Environment International Artist Residency Programme (AER) provides UAL graduates with the exceptional opportunity to explore concerns of the 21st century. One UAL student was selected to visit one of our partnering institutions; Waltham Forest.
Making for Change: Waltham Forest comprises a programme of community engagement, educational and design research activities grounded on the themes of makers, fellowships, and radicals, using fashion as catalyst for change in the borough, with long-term legacy.
In this report, Harriette Meynell at Central Saint Martins shares an soundscape and artist statement post residency:
To conclude a six-week Arts in the Environment residency at Arbeit Studios I (re)constructed Leyton High Road – from the bus garage to the E10/E17 boundary with the Lea Bridge Road – within a site-specific sound installation that gathered together the voices of local shopkeepers.
Colour is associated with redevelopment and gentrification. Paint has names such as Glass Houses and Royal Mews Gold. A general painting-over occurs, with a pastel aesthetic. The installation invited the viewer to listen, look and touch what is lost, perhaps, when this process happens. The voices talk of community, the sad and funny times, and time spent in the immediate area where twenty pence fuses, henna trays and toy lions are on sale.
Scaffold is at the front line of the alterations. When the tarpaulins come down a new and different façade comes into being. The installation used scaffolding as the frame for the installation and brought the prospect of redevelopment into the Arbeit Studios themselves. A physical embodiment of the changes happening to so many London high streets.
I would like to thank all the shopkeepers that contributed to the project and their generosity of time and openness to my questions. I have laughed with, and cried at, some of the stories they shared. So thank-you Mohammad, Salma, May, Shabbir, Mohamed, Muhmmad, Vince, Gideon, Jordan, Danny and Serdar (for putting me in touch). Thanks also to Waltham Forest Council and London College of Fashion for awarding me the residency and the opportunity to make work about the area.
Petit Pli is based in the Fashion District in one of the new studios at The Trampery Fish Island Village. Ryan has been chatting to businesses thinking of applying for the Forge Fashion business support programme in Waltham Forest about using tech innovation to create sustainability. An unfolding success, the company uses aero-space engineering and design to tackle sustainability and push circularity in the fashion industry.
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For more information, please get in touch with the Petit Pli Press team at hello@petitpli.com
As the next stage of the challenge, we invited our nine finalists to attend a critical friends development workshop where start-ups could recieve feedback on their business ahead of the finals on November 5th from some industry experts:
Briana Cross, Head of Marketing Operations (UK), Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield
Briana has worked within retail marketing for over 12 years and now leads Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield’s centre teams in the UK. With experience across both Australia and the UK, she brings knowledge of delivering strategic marketing plans across different markets. Through a deep understanding of the consumer, Briana has delivered marketing campaigns, events, new experiences and innovations to ensure our centres remain number one choice for customers and retailers.
Carolina Neri, Account Director, Brunswick Group
Carolina is a corporate and financial communication advisor specializing in the consumer and tech industries, with a strong focus on luxury retail and start-ups. Aside from her interest in these industries, at Brunswick Group, Carolina deals with reputation management and crisis communication for established and upcoming companies.
Francesca Baillieu, Commerical Analyst, True Capital
Francesca joined True, a retail and consumer innovation and investment firm, after gaining experience as an Investment Analyst at technology seed fund, Playfair Capital. Prior to this, Francesca spent two years working at ecommerce startup Evode Group as Project Coordinator. Francesca’s role at True is to identify innovative business to work with True’s corporate partners such as M&S, Abercrombie and Fitch, Morrisons, Shell and 7-Eleven (to name a few).
Katie Baron, Head of Retail, Stylus.com
Katie Baron is a journalist, author & futurist who specialises in defining and predicting the intersections between technology, pop culture and consumer behaviours. An inaugural member of London College of Fashion’s Digital Anthropology Laboratory think-tank, she’s currently Head of Retail – Trends, Insights & Innovations – at global futures agency Stylus, and contributes to Forbes on the topics of retail innovation and brand culture. She’s also authored two books on visual culture – Stylists: New Fashion Visionaries (2012) and Fashion + Music: Fashion Creatives Shaping Pop Culture (2016).
Lisa Chatterton, Business Manager, Fashion Innovation Agency
Lisa Chatterton works at the Fashion Innovation Agency, at London College of Fashion. Here she establishes collaborations between the worlds of fashion and technology. Lisa implements innovative projects that use emerging technologies to accelerate the pace of change in the fashion industry. Lisa has a wealth of fashion retail experience from her career in merchandising, which provides real insight into how new technologies might be applied within fashion businesses. Lisa has worked with major brands including Microsoft, Disney, Unilever and Arcadia Group, alongside designers such as Preen, JW Anderson, Steven Tai and Phoebe English. She has delivered a range of projects that include bringing Mixed Reality to London Fashion Week, using artificial intelligence to predict fashion styles and a project that Forbes described as “the first example of truly beautiful wearable tech”.
Kiara Alves-Walters, Senior Strategy Analyst, Farfetch
Kiara Alves Walters is a Senior Analyst in the Strategy & Innovation team at Farfetch, where she specialises in delivering strategic cross-functional initiatives with a focus on luxury fashion, retail and brand building. Before Farfetch, Kiara spent 4 years as a management consultant at PwC, working on a range of client engagements from global transformation projects to M&A advisory. Kiara is currently a mentor for the Farfetch Dream Assembly accelerator programme, and co-creator of the Farfetch X #FASHHACK panel events that aim to explore market trends in an open forum with the wider Fashion Tech ecosystem.
Mark Sims, Senior Development Manager, Customer Experience, John Lewis & Partners
Mark is responsible for developing John Lewis & Partners future store blueprint – what the physical experience of John Lewis will be in 2030. He is working with teams across the business to identify what customers will want in the future and develop the capability to meet those future needs. He has experience of developing new formats and improvements to the customer experience across Grocery, DIY and Telco retailers. His passion is for finding ways to reduce operational costs and improve customer experience with changes to the operating model.
Marina Atarova, Dream Assembly Accelerator Lead, Farfetch & Fash-Hack Founder
Marina is an entrepreneur and mentor with over 7 years of experience working with early stage tech startups and investors. As a partner in several projects, Marina has been involved in running marketing campaigns, events, workshops and hackathons and created a network of tech investors, looking to back up early stage tech superstars. Marina also has the #Fashhack tech community for fashion and retail brands, startups and investors looking to disrupt Fashion Industry.
The second event in the 2019 Better Lives Series, Centre for Sustainable Fashion will ask: How can micro and small fashion businesses contribute to better lives and more sustainable futures?
Micro and small businesses stand at the forefront of innovation towards sustainability. Join us to meet some pioneering businesses doing things differently across the fashion sector. The panel discussion is led by Professor Sandy Black from Centre for Sustainable Fashion.
Professor Dilys Williams, Director of Centre for Sustainable Fashion will also introduce the Centre’s AHRC funded project Fostering Sustainable Practices which aims to support designer-entrepreneurs in their transition to more sustainable practices.
You will also meet our project partners from Middlesex University and The Open University and have an opportunity to network with other micro and small fashion businesses. Drinks and networking from 8pm.
Address Town Hall Hotel & Apartments
8 Patriot Square
London
E2 9NF
Hosted by Professor Sandy Black and Professor Dilys Williams of Centre for Sustainable Fashion, UAL
Panel presentations, discussion and Q&A Professor Sandy Black in discussion with Raeburn director Graeme Raeburn, Patternity co-founder Anna Murray, Cute Circuit co-founder Francesca Rosella, Sabinna creative director Sabinna Rachimova, Riz Boardshorts founder Riz Smith, and creative innovator Martine Jarlgaard
The London Fashion Fund is now OPEN for applications from 30th July to November 5th 2019.
Round 1:
Closing date: August 15th 2019
Selection panel shortlisting 22nd August 2019
Investment Committee 3rd September 2019
Round 2 :
Closing date 5th November 2019
Selection panel shortlisting 12th November 2019
Investment Committee 10th December 2019
First send an expression of interest to register yourselves on our database to: enquiries@londonfashionfund.co.uk
This will briefly clarify (no more that one side A4) who you are, what your business does, are you solving a problem, team, market , revenues and strategy for investment .
Then, provided you meet our criteria, published on our downloadable FAQ sheet, we will send you an application form. You will send your completed application form to : enquiries@londonfashionfund.co.uk
Please note you must be company registered in UK and be trading already.
Organised by the British Bangladesh Fashion Council, The British Bangladeshi Fashion & Lifestyle Awards 2019 saw 21 awards being handed out to individuals and companies that have transcended barriers and achieved the pinnacle of their given trade & professions and in the process have brought colour, joy and happiness to all our lives.
The awards was a celebration and promotion of British Bangladeshi fashion, arts, culture and businesses that help contribute to the unique multicultural lifestyle of British Bangladeshis and to the wider British society. It was a celebration that showcased the best of British Bangladeshis and celebrated the fantastic achievements throughout the fashion & lifestyle industry.
Fokrul Hoque, CEO of the British Bangladesh Fashion Council said:
We are delighted to have hosted this awards ceremony. The amount of creative talent that we have within the British Bangladeshi community is not highlighted enough, as often the focus is on the achievements in some of the other sectors which have taken a precedent, such as academic and business achievements. These awards are not just about recognizing those who have succeeded and done well in this sector, but also about highlighting and promoting the creative industries as a career choice, as the fashion industry is a £32 billion a year industry and one that is growing fast, with lots of opportunities.
London College of Fashion, UAL and Fashion District were delighted to sponsor the Outstanding Achievements within the Fashion Industry Award which went to Rahemur Rahman for his debut earlier in the year at London Fashion Week, being the first designer of Bangladeshi heritage to showcase at London Fashion Week.
On winning the award, Rahemur Rahman said
I would like to dedicate this award to all the hidden powerful souls who have brought me to this stage of my life. My teachers, my mentors, my professors, but most importantly my friends and family. This would not be possible without the help of British Bangladesh Fashion Council and their incredible support that has seen me through both my first London Fashion Week Show, and representing Bangladesh at International Fashion Showcase 2019. Through this amazing network of incredible talented people, which is always growing, I intend to use this award and with help from the awards sponsors to pioneer BAME creatives into the fashion industry. If I can be the first Bangladeshi to show at London Fashion Week, that means there is many more just like me ready to share this stage. Let’s get creative.
DeFINE (Developing a Fashion-tech Innovation Network for Europe) is a three year collaborative project co-funded by the European Commission’s COSME programme which aims to support the fusion of cutting-edge technologies and innovation with the European fashion and design industries.
London College of Fashion, University of the Arts London is one of ten European consortium partners working to build a network of fashion, technology, business and investment community across Europe.
As part of the DeFINE events series, London College of Fashion, University of the Arts London and Fashion District will be leading the London Bootcamp that is taking place Wednesday 5th – Thursday 6th June 2019 in Stratford.
If you are a start-up or SME, the London Bootcamp is a fantastic opportunity to meet with industry experts to vet your business idea. Through a series of inspirational talks, engaging workshops and business tools – you will come away feeling confident about your business idea. Our mentors will be joining the bootcamp to provide one-to-one support on topics such as ideation, marketing and investment readiness. While networking with peers, discover top tips on how to apply for the 8-month Mentoring Programme.
Applications are now closed.
Visit the DeFINE website for more information on events, networking and mentoring programme.
@DeFINENetworkEU
#DeFINE #FashionTech
The International Fashion Showcase was established in the year of the London Olympics as a platform for emerging fashion designers to exhibit their work during London Fashion Week as a competition that shares the same values of the Olympics; fraternity, respect, equality and excellence.
Since 2012, more than 600 of the most exciting international designers from 70 countries have exhibited in the International Fashion Showcase. It reflects London’s reputation for promoting and supporting new talent in the creative industries by providing opportunities for designers from overseas to engage with the UK fashion community and build international connections. The biennial fashion presentation is a partnership between the British Council, British Fashion Council, London College of Fashion, UAL and Somerset House.
For London Fashion Week this February, the showcase has a new format. For the first time, 16 selected designers representing 16 countries from across the globe will showcase a series of compelling installations to represent their respective country. The designers will explore politics, sustainability, identity and heritage and show their latest designs in immersive environments.
An exciting addition to the showcase is British Bangladeshi menswear designer Rahemur Rahman. Rahemur is a graduate of Central Saint Martins, and worked with Bangladeshi fair trade organisation Aranya and their network of artisans to develop his collection, which will be presented in an installation that evokes his British Bangladeshi upbringing. In this body of work he will not only visually challenge fashion conventions but use this platform to participate in conversations about sustainability, inclusivity, and diversity.
In another first, these designers have been supported through a bespoke online programme, developed by London College of Fashion, UAL, which will cover all aspects of business development from branding to sales and production to sustainability. They also travelled to London in August 2018 to attend a two-week talent development programme. This tailored cultural residency and business skills training will give the emerging designers the professional support that is often difficult to access, provided by some of the UK’s leading fashion and creative experts.
Sarah Mower MBE British Fashion Council Ambassador for Emerging Talent and Chief Critic at Vogue.com, said:
“As vast, daunting and digitally-driven as the fashion industry can be, the most vital, exciting ideas often originate from self-expression and personal relationships. This year, by inviting the 16 emerging designers to London for a summer residency, the International Fashion Showcase took the principle of fostering personal exchange and interaction to the next level. The results of the experience were unexpectedly electric for all involved. Put simply, the knowledge, eye-opening conversations and creative energy sparked in all directions across the group.”