Farfetch partners with BFC Fashion Trust

The British Fashion Council (BFC) has revealed a new partner for the BFC Fashion Trust, namely international fashion website Farfetch.

"It is particularly exciting for the BFC Fashion Trust to partner with Farfetch, a revolutionary e-commerce site that connects the best designer boutiques across the world," said Caroline Rush CBE, Chief Executive of the BFC. "I truly believe that the next generation of designer businesses will really benefit from this partnership."

A charitable initiative founded by the BFC in early 2011, the Fashion Trust, offers selected designers business support in the form mentoring sessions as well as financial awards. Designers up for this year's funding are set to be announced next month, on May 24.

"We are thrilled to be supporting the BFC Fashion Trust and to be raising awareness of the Trust’s work internationally," said José Neves, Founder and CEO, Farfetch on the partnership. "We hope that our team of experts across digital, e-commerce and global market expansion will prove invaluable to the designers we will be awarding grants to in May 2016."

Last June saw the Fashion Trust divide grants totalling 300,000 pounds between nine designers: David Koma, Emilia Wickstead, Holly Fulton, Marios Schwab, Mother of Pearl, palmer//harding, Prism, Sibling and Sophia Webster. Previous recipients have used the funds to help develop stores, e-commerce platforms, as well as to support the production of pre-collections.

"Since the inception of the BFC Fashion Trust we have seen designers go on to achieve great success and growth," added Tania Fares, co-chair of the Fashion Trust. "The Fashion Trust has enabled them to further advance their brands in various ways and this is something that we will continue to champion. We are very excited to be working with Farfetch on this initiative and look forward to mentoring more British talent this year."