Molly Goddard has been named as the recipient of the BFC/Vogue Designer Fashion Fund, scooping a £200,000 prize along with 12 months of expert mentoring.
The designer was chosen from a shortlist of talent that also included Huishan Zhang, David Koma, Le Kilt, Marques Almeida and Rejina Pyo.
For the first time since the prize was established in 2008, it has received sponsorship from China’s largest etailer JD.com, who will be using the platform to promote British talent to the Chinese audience.
Judges for the prize included: Edward Enninful, Editor of British Vogue; Caroline Rush, CEO of the British Fashion Council; Erdem Moralioglu, ERDEM; Gemma Metheringham, LABEL; Helen David, Harrods; Jourdan Dunn, model; Maria Hatzistefanis, Rodial; Sarah Manley, Burberry; Sarah Mower MBE, BFC Ambassador for Emerging Talent & Vogue Runway; Paul Price of Topshop and Xia Ding of JD.com.
Enninful, who chaired the panel, said of Goddard: “Molly Goddard is an original, she has a singular vision that has propelled her label to an international level. She is the definition of talent and what Britain does best in our creative industry.”
All shortlisted designers received a full mentoring programme through the BFC’s Business Support team, with access to funders and industry experts including a roundtable hosted by Sir Paul Smith and a mentoring session from Rodial’s Maria Hatzistefanis.
Additionally, JD.com hosted the shortlisted designers in Shanghai and organised a catwalk show for them to showcase their collections to a local audience of media, retailers and industry influencers, while award-winning law firm Mishcon de Reya is providing pro-bono legal advice to the finalists and winner.
The news was announced as the BFC revealed it raised more than £2.2m to support emerging talent in the UK in 2017 via its charities and business support services, such as the BFC Education Foundation, The BFC Trust and NEWGEN, which supports a raft of young designers showing at London Fashion Week and London Fashion Week Men’s.
Joining the NEWGEN scheme this year are: Alighieri, Isosceles, Matty Bovan, Per Gotesson, Supriya Lele and The Season Hats. They join a line-up of designers who remain on the scheme, which includes A-COLD-WALL*, Charles Jeffrey LOVERBOY, Halpern, Kiko Kostadinov, Liam Hodges, Nicholas Daley, Paula Knorr, Phoebe English, Richard Malone, Richard Quinn, Wales Bonner. Designers who have now graduated from the scheme include COTTWEILER, Marta Jakubowski, Molly Goddard and Sadie Williams.
“I would like to thank all our supporters without whom this would have not been possible, from our patrons to all the funders, sponsors and mentors who give their time pro-bono to help us develop and grow the exciting designer businesses we have in the UK,” said the BFC’s Caroline Rush.
“Huge congratulations to the 2018 NEWGEN recipients and to Molly Goddard, winner of the 2018 BFC/Vogue Designer Fashion Fund. All these designers represent the most creative and innovative talent our country has to offer and we look forward to working with them to raise their profile even more on the international fashion stage,” she added.
