The Business of Fashion
Agenda-setting intelligence, analysis and advice for the global fashion community.
Agenda-setting intelligence, analysis and advice for the global fashion community.
Mercedes, a self-taught designer whose creations have been worn by Tyra Banks and Laverne Cox, receives a $10,000 grant, a year of professional mentorship and the opportunity to launch a capsule collection with plus-size womenswear site Eloquii next year. She will also have access to training and support from digital marketing agency MTO and a session on brand protection strategy from The Influencer Attorney.
Judges also named Atlanta-based designer A’Shontay Hubbard, founder of Christian Omeshun, and Courtney Smith, of New York label Courtney Noelle, as runners-up, with Hubbard also receiving the “voter’s choice” award. Both will receive scholarship grants totalling $3,500, a session on brand protection strategy with The Influencer Attorney and an additional $1,000 cash prize for Hubbard.
Launched earlier this year by Eloquii and lifestyle blog The Curvy Fashionista, The Cultivate Awards were open to emerging independent BIPOC designers who have made clothes size 14 and up part of their offering for at least two years. The panel of judges included Lindsay Peoples Wagner, editor in chief of The Cut, celebrity stylist Timothy Snell, plus-size model and Liris Crosse and Eloquii design director Yesenia Torres.
Designer Carly Mark sparked conversation about what it takes to make it as an emerging designer in New York when she announced she was shutting her ready-to-wear line and moving to London. On Thursday she held her last sample sale.
To stabilise their businesses brands are honing in on what their particular consumer wants to buy, introducing new categories and starting conversations.
That’s the promise of Zellerfeld, a 3D-printing partner to Louis Vuitton and Moncler that’s becoming a platform for emerging designers to easily make and sell footwear of their own.
With a new heavyweight backer in Italian firm Style Capital — which helped Zimmermann secure a billion dollar valuation — the French contemporary womenswear brand has ambitions to go global. But it sits in a competitive and hard-to-crack category.