British Fashion Council

The British Fashion Council Mentors provide pro-bono business development support to BFC Foundation designers and BFC Members across the fashion value chain, contributing to their growth via bespoke one-on-one sessions.

Mentors

Alexandra Powley

Amber Pepper

Ben Matthews

Catherine Hayward

Alexandra Powley

Consultant

Alexandra Powley has 18 years of Luxury Merchandising Retail experience in both large national retailers and boutiques and has built strong brands, worked with creative teams and brought new product to market. Alexandra believes that good ideas are contagious and people are at the heart of everything we do together as a team. She loves to bring concepts to life and her passion is always to support teams that push the envelope, inspire creativity and build great brands.

Amber Pepper

Consultant

Amber is a brand builder, a storyteller and a connector of people. Specialising in helping brands clarify and contextualise their brand positioning. Initially defining target consumer bases and then creating a deep narrative and a focused strategy to translate the brand vision and deliver high impact and growth. Skilled in building and recruiting best in class teams and agencies to execute world class creative and content, Amber is passionate about mentoring and developing talent. At heart, bringing people together, creating communities and utilising the power of a group to deliver impact and change is what Amber is most excited by. With over 20 years' experience creating innovative marketing strategies in the luxury and lifestyle space. Amber's skills include the full funnel mix of global marketing, ecommerce management (both B2B and B2C) experiential retail, brand development and growth, social media strategy, narrative and storytelling, creative and campaign management.

Ben Matthews

Founder, BAM Consultancy

Ben Matthews has 20 years experience in fashion and retail, with a strong and varied background in digital-first buying and collection building. First worked for the iconic high street store, Topshop, then formed part of the original buy team at NET-A-PORTER.COM, the world's first luxury e-tailer. Ben specialises in buying, product merchandising and brand direction and his consultancy BAM was founded in 2015 to support businesses in the fashion and lifestyle industry to define their brand and product vision, setting them up for commercial success

Catherine Hayward

Consultant

Catherine Hayward is a fashion editor, stylist and consultant with 25+ years in publishing and media. A former Fashion Director of British Esquire, The Big Black Book and Fashion Editor of British GQ, she regularly contributes to Esquire, Mr Porter, The Hollywood Reporter, The Telegraph Magazine and The Times Luxx Report. She was a member of the BFC’s menswear and NEWGEN Men committees and co-authored Man About Town, a glossy history hardback charting the evolution of men’s style in the 20th century. Her red carpet clients include Benedict Cumberbatch, Daniel Craig, Vicky McClure, Ciaran Hinds, Paapa Essiedu, Hugh Skinner, Jeremy Irvine, Stephen Merchant, Charles Edwards and Marcelino Sambe. She is currently the Editor-at-Large of Calendar Magazine, the sustainable glossy and the Fashion Editor of the Times Luxx Report for Men.

Diana Kakkar

Founder & Chief Executive, MAES London

Diana Kakkar is the founder and chief executive of MAES London, a luxury garment manufacturing studio located in North London specialising in designer womenswear. Launched in 2018, MAES London is dedicated to making fashion manufacturing accessible to emerging and established fashion designers. At the core of the business and atelier is Diana who understands the quality and attention to detail required by luxury womenswear designers. From sampling to development to small production and consultancy, she is the face of modern luxury manufacturing and on a mission to reconnect designers with the people who make their clothes.

Eva Gomes

Founder, Fashency

Eva established her own consultancy agency specializing in finance and operations for fashion brands a year ago. Her clientele includes renowned names such as Saul Nash, Nicholas Daley, BYFAR, Loutre, BLMBRG, Wright and Doyle, Conkers, and more. Prior to this entrepreneurial endeavour, Eva served as the Chief Operating Officer at Studio Nicholson for five years. Eva's journey into the fashion industry began with a three-year tenure at Christopher Kane, where she honed her expertise in finance and operations.

Francois Souchet

Managing Director, Swanstant

Francois is a sustainability advisor and mentor with over a decade experience in strengthening organizations using circular economy and sustainability. He initiated and led Make Fashion Circular at the Ellen MacArthur Foundation between 2018 and 2021, establishing it as a truly disruptive force within the fashion industry, championing circularity. Since January 2024, Francois has set-up Swanstant, an intelligence and advisory firm strengthening industry leaders across the consumer and creative industries by accelerating their impact journeys.

Henrik Madsen

Founder HMJ Partners

HMJ Partners is a global brand and lifestyle consumer practitioner firm based in London. Henrik is Shareholder in Reome.com, Zen Running Club, Fortune Favours Entertainment and Sizolution.AI, and he is a Board Director at Tee-Shoppen.com, and Rhanders.com (DK) and he holds a series of Director roles including at Osprey London, CHÉ Studios, Ground Truth, MessyWeekend.com and Bründl Sport in Austria. Henrik currently has advisory roles with Charles Jeffrey ‘Loverboy’ and Neous. His purpose is to build value creating, impactful and successful, earth positive and socially responsible, businesses, using a simple three-step process ‘Plan – Build – Perfect’, by instilling a precise and deliverable brand proposition, applying clear data first thinking, combined delivering an engaging, relevant, service and convenience proposition, eternally inspirational and desirable to consumers and internal/external stakeholders.

Lydia Zacharis

Tom Vino

Vikram Menon

Lydia Zacharis

Womenswear Buying Manager

Lydia Zacharis has had over ten years of Buying experience in the Luxury industry, having worked extensively with both non-apparel and RTW categories and with brands spanning across all Established Designer, Contemporary and Emerging spaces. Holding degrees in Economics and Management she focused on multi-brand buying early on, leveraging both her analytical background and creative, product-loving nature. Lydia loves talking product and has insights across collection merchandising, product & brand strategies, and holistic global overview of customer needs and tastes.

Tom Vino

Head of Digital Merchandising

Creative and data driven Head of Digital Merchandising with over 14 years’ experience across e-commerce – including buying, trading, e-marketing, website navigation, customer journeys, user experience and interface improvements. Having worked across both luxury (Loewe, Burberry, Stella McCartney) and fast-fashion (Tommy Hilfiger) retailers to gain knowledge and understanding of different e-commerce models, their capabilities and applications both online and in Retail.

Vikram Menon

Chartered Account & Finance Advisor

Vikram is a Chartered Accountant who advises creative entrepreneurs in the fashion sector on Business, Tax and Accounting issues. He has over twenty years’ experience working for one of the leading Accountancy firms in London. Vikram works closely with the British Fashion Council acting as a mentor to the designers they support through initiatives like NEWGEN and Fashion Trust. He is also a mentor to the designers on the Copenhagen Fashion Week NEWTALENT scheme and the Paul Smith Foundation. He set up his own consultancy business, Fashionex Limited, 5 years ago and his clients are predominately emerging fashion brands based in the UK and internationally. Vikram also regularly gives talks on finance to fashion students at the Jimmy Choo Academy in London and Central St Martins.

Mentors

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BFC Initiatives

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