On Friday 17th March, Founder Patron, Belma Gaudio, hosted a breakfast at her home in London as a way of connecting our BFC Foundation Patrons to our brilliant BFC Foundation Designers.
The BFC Foundation supports all of our grant-giving initiatives: NEWGEN, Fashion Trust, BFC/Vogue Designer Fashion Fund and the BFC/GQ Designer Fashion Fund. These grants are in large part funded by our Global Patron Programme, Co-Chaired by our loyal fundraising champions, Narmina Marandi and Tania Fares.
This event was an opportunity for patrons and designers to meet, listen, understand and even pave the way for future collaborations and connections.
A special thank you to Belma for hosting the event and for leading discussions, 'As a longstanding supporter to the BFC Foundation and to British Designers, both as a patron to the charity as well as through my retail platform, KOIBIRD, it is incredibly important to me that we are able to connect as an industry on a more personal level in order to understand how we, as a community, can push creativity, innovation and sustainability further. As Patrons, we hope we can provide support to designers no matter at what stage, or age or type of business. It is about collaboration at all levels in order to propel our businesses forward.'
Also a note of thanks to BFC Executive Board Member, Caroline Issa, who also lead introductions and talks between groups as well. We hope to do more events like this in the future, any feedback in order to improve these events, discussions and even structure, would be much appreciated.
Our BFC Foundation Designers 2022/2023: Ahluwalia, ANCUȚA SARCA, ASAI, Bethany Williams, Chet Lo, Chopova Lowena, Clothsurgeon, Completedworks, Conner Ives, DI PETSA, E.L.V. Denim, EFTYCHIA, FEBEN, HARRI, Helen Kirkum, LABRUM London, Leo Carlton, LYPH, MASHA POPOVA, Nensi Dojaka, Neous, Nicholas Daley, Olyubiyi Thomas, Paolo Carzana, Richard Malone, Richard Quinn, ROBYN LYNCH, ROKER, S.S. DALEY, Sinéad O'Dwyer, Stefan Cooke, Supriya Lele, TOVE, Wales Bonner and Yuhan Wang.