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LVMH Prize finalist Aaron Esh is showing his first catwalk collection at London Fashion Week this season on the same day as Burberry. The pressure is on to stand out in a crowded schedule. Esh knows he has a lot to prove. “We’re doing tailoring and it has to look like it’s the same level as a brand with millions of pounds. There’s an expectation there that costs money,” he says, speaking from his studio in Islington, North London, where he is simultaneously working to deliver 650 garments to retailers for Autumn/Winter 2023.
For early-stage brands, a catwalk show is a very major investment, although costs vary wildly. A modest show might cost £10,000 to £50,000, while the budgets for big luxury brands can run into the millions. New designers insist that catwalks matter hugely. Those interviewed by Vogue Business see debut shows as milestones for their brands and careers, bringing them to the attention of a wider global audience. A slot on the official schedule acts as a kind of badge of honour, affirming status within the industry.
In tough economic times, new designers face a welter of challenges. “Fashion in Britain plays a significant role in shaping the world’s economy [but] the current market poses several challenges for designer businesses, including difficulties in accessing financing, increased regulation due to post-Brexit red tape and trading terms, and upcoming sustainability legislation,” says Caroline Rush, chief executive of the British Fashion Council (BFC).
In response, London’s designers hustle to assemble funding from widespread sources, including savings, grants and sponsorships. Those who have built strong relationships with industry professionals might receive a reduced rate for venues or services such as hair, makeup and models. Some receive support from unconventional partners who benefit from having a closer association to fashion and culture.
Esh founded his namesake brand in 2022 after receiving an Alexander McQueen scholarship, which provided a contribution of £26,699 towards university tuition, course costs and living expenses, allowing him to complete his MA at Central Saint Martins. His graduate collection caught the eye of Ssense, the first retailer to place an order. A turning point came last September when Esh met and began working with global brand development platform Tomorrow London through a recommendation from Charles Jeffrey Loverboy (in which the platform has a minority stake). “A few months later, I’ve done a full new collection, shot it and held a showroom and we picked up five more stores,” says Esh. The five retail customers were Browns, Machine-A, Antonioli, LN-CC and H Lorenzo.
Esh started out as a menswear designer but his new show is co-ed, with styles and sizing for women (who already account for 50 per cent of his customers). Designers such as Jonathan Anderson and Grace Wales Bonner took a similar route. “The commerciality of menswear has a potential ceiling in terms of sell-through and in its scope,” says Esh.
Esh has the support of BFC’s NewGen programme, which provides mentorship and funding to selected designers. He declines to share how much financial support he has received, but emphasises that he will not use the allocated showspace provided by the BFC. “We really wanted to make our own point of view, in our own space.”
Every item on the show budget has to be considered with care. “The economy is in a different place and people handing over cash has become harder to find and things can easily fluctuate,” says Esh. “You could do one sales season of £200,000 and £600,000 the next.”
On staying agile
Designer Talia Byre, who operates out of a studio in East London’s Hackney, is also going solo. She launched her label in 2020 after graduating from Central Saint Martins, producing thoughtful knitwear and separates. The brand currently counts 10-12 global stockists, including Ssense, Browns and 10 Corso Como, made possible by 247, a global brand development platform that has worked with the likes of Mowalola and Knwls.
On 17 September, Byre staged her third collection off-schedule at an independent bookstore. “In London, when you get onto the show circuit, it’s always bigger, bigger, bigger — but I think it’s nice to stay agile and small. We’re not that kind of hype brand.” She sees value in a show because “it helps in getting our message across”, but chose a venue outside of the BFC showspace because it allows her to “curate the whole setting a lot more”.
Byre sells around £100,000 a season, with a goal to double that figure. A primary target market for SS24 is the Asia-Pacific region, with the aim of picking up new stockists in South Korea, Japan and China.
Byre’s show is supported through sales, personal savings (she teaches womenswear at London College of Fashion) support from production company Gainsbury & Whiting, which used to help the late Alexander McQueen create his celebrated shows, and through connections facilitated by stylist Eliza Conlon. Most of the external support provided for the show is in terms of services or products, while Byre primarily fronts the costs of the collection.
Esh, who also has the support of Gainsbury & Whiting, looked to unconventional partners to help finance the show. He was among a cohort of emerging London-based designers who created bespoke outfits for a new campaign for Smartwater, the Coca-Cola-owned brand, featuring ambassador Zendaya in August. All designers involved in the Smartwater campaign were handpicked by celebrity stylist Law Roach. Esh met Roach on the set of the LVMH Prize, where he was one of nine finalists.
How the sums add up
When Harri (full name Harikrishnan Keezhathil Surendran Pillai) presented his London College of Fashion graduate collection in 2021, his inflatable latex trousers went viral and put him on the radar of Henrik Vibskov, a Danish designer and artist-curator. His P.I.G. Foundation, which supports young creative talent, provided Harri with £4,000. Harri was also accepted onto the BFC’s NewGen programme, which provides mentorship and (undisclosed) funding, and University of the Arts London’s Creative Business Accelerator, providing £6,000.
The sums still didn’t add up. However, an unexpected buyer purchased 10 of Harri’s trousers, each costing £1,000. That was enough to finance a presentation at London Fashion Week for SS23. Then British singer Sam Smith enlisted Harri to create an all-black custom-made latex look for the Brit Awards in February 2023. The designer later created outfits for Smith’s tour, helping to fund his AW23 collection and this SS24’s collection — his first catwalk show. Harri has also created designs for theatre companies and sold through adventurous stockists such as H Lorenzo and Korean multi-brand retailer Empty.
Why stage a show? “A show is about perception,” he says. “Our brand is also about showmanship. It hasn’t been picked up for its products but for the spectacle.” Harri is now working in a studio offered by London College of Fashion for the next two years, alongside NewGen labels Bethany Williams and Popova.
Expanding visibility
Srvc (pronounced service), launched in 2021 by Masha Adonyeva and Ricky Wesley Harriott, presents its debut show on 18 September. The duo secured private funding at launch (the details were undisclosed) with the aim of getting off the ground quickly via wholesale. The brand hosted its first showroom in Paris for AW22 and took on a handful of stockists, including H Lorenzo and Nubian in Tokyo. Today, it counts 10 retail partners including Ssense and Selfridges.
“Our wholesale business has been growing so it felt appropriate to invite people into our universe a bit more now. We want to expand our narrative, and visibility [in this sector] is half the battle,” says Wesley Harriott. Seventy per cent of the show costs are footed by sales and the founders’ own savings, while 30 per cent derive from sponsorship from hair and makeup brands, he says. “By no means are we in a position to do a mind-blowing spectacle but we’re doing the best with what we have.”
The challenge for new designers is to maintain a consistent presence. “When you’re on the calendar, you’re viewed by the same audience [which attends shows from bigger brands], so there is pressure,” says Harri. Wesley Harriott adds: “You set an expectation for yourself and the business. You’re only as good as your last body of work, so that expectation is to go bigger and do better every time. As a young brand, there isn’t an endless stream of cash.”
However, he notes that the industry is more tolerant these days when brands can’t show every season. Brands such as Conner Ives, Chopova Lowena and Knwls have opted to host shows once a year. “You see designers pull away for a season more and more often, because it allows them to come back when they’re financially and mentally healthy,” says Srvc’s Wesley Harriott.
Esh and his team are up to the challenge. Marco Vianello, vice president of sales and business development at Tomorrow, says Aaron Esh is eyeing new markets like the US and China, and has target sales of £500,000 by the end of the year. “We want to double our revenue from our first year,” declares Esh. “The show will get a wider reach of people to understand conceptually what the clothes are, what we’re saying and where we want to exist within the world.”
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