The British Fashion Council (BFC) supports creative fashion companies throughout the UK. Extra funds for the continuation of the operation during the COVID-19 pandemic are doling out as much as £50,000 ($60,900).
Grants are allocated to 37 sustainable companies depending on their urgence and functioning capacity, and thrive after the crisis, from the council’s £1,000,000 ($1.2 million) emergency fund.
The emergency fund pools talent support grants that would usually have been awarded for either early-stage showcasing support or business growth and promotion, including the BFC and Vogue Designer Fashion Fund (VDFF). Prior to the COVID-19 outbreak, six of these designers—Alighieri, Charles Jeffrey Loverboy, David Koma, Halpern, Metier and Rejina Pyo—were named as finalists for the BFC and VDFF 2020. The winner was set to receive a cash prize of £200,000 ($243,700) and a year’s worth of mentoring, but the BFC and Vogue made the decision to split the prize money among the six designers in early March when COVID-19 upended the U.K. market.
The fund has seen more than 220 applications to date. All applicants who did not receive funding through this round will be informed when new rounds of funding open and will be advised of government support schemes.
Fund recipients are granted access to BFC Business Support and guidance from the DLA Piper, Eco-Age, Farfetch, FashionEx, Google, HSBC, Instagram, Lewis Silkin, Lloyds, LVMH, Mishcon De Reya, RSM, Sheridans, Taylor Wessing, The Ellen MacArthur Foundation, The Bicester Village Shopping Collection and Yo will receive up to $60,900.
