FatakaFashions recently hosted their launch Wings4Fashion event during London Fashion Week on the 14th / 15th September at the Montcalm Hotel in Central London. The event aims to provide everything a fashion designer or brand needs to succeed in the fashion industry from funding, mentoring, support and exposure. After a recent meeting with the Founder and CEO Dattatraya Kadikar Fashion-Enter / FTA CEO Jenny Holloway was invited as a guest mentoring panellist at the ‘Pitch Your Fashion Business’ session.
Regarding the meeting and event Jenny said:
“You sometimes get a feeling about someone when you meet them and that’s exactly what happened when Dattatraya Kadikar came to see us last week.
“He asked to advertise on fashioncapital.co.uk but we truthfully said we were concerned about the
lack of lead time he had given for effective marketing but Dattatraya wanted to carry on anyway – that’s when I said come and visit us and see what we do.
“Well, I was blown away with such a genuine intent to help budding designers and entrepreneurs. Within just a four-week period Dattatraya created the Wings4Fashion event which is basically the fashion industry equivalent of Dragons Den. A panel of seven judges (including me) vetted brands to put them forward for investment from £100,000 to £500,000 for their concept. The idea is that the London Fashion Fund headed up by chair Prof. Yu Xiong invests in brands in exchange for equity.
“We had contacted a few of the 70 brands we work with as we always want to share a good deal but the timing was not on their side especially as this was London Fashion Week too. At the last minute, we decided to present our in-house brand Belles of London and pitch for business. I made full disclosure of our involvement and credit to Stephanie, our Brand and Development Officer, she gave an excellent pitch! We now have to wait to see if we are successful.
“The following day, Sunday15th September, there was the gala fashion show and dinner – a lovely evening that again was full of good intent and well wishes. It was particularly lovely to meet the wife of Dattatraya – she explained how they met when she was 16 and he was 17 and they have been happy ever since. Isn’t that lovely – it just shows to me how genuine these people are and their very good intentions. Let’s wait and see what happens next.”
Stephanie added: “For my first time pitching at an event of this kind, it was a great experience and I feel that Belles of London was very well received by the panellists. It is always so lovely to represent a brand that I am so passionate about and to have the opportunity to share that with others is a really great feeling.”
Fatakafashions.com has been set up as a bridge between fashion designers and fashion buyers. The aim is to provide a support system to those that have brand vision but not necessarily business acumen.
Building a fashion brand or a fashion label involves many steps and the failure rate is quite high, this is where Wings4Fashion comes in to ensure industry success for fashions future brands.
Watch this space as we reveal which businesses have gained either funding or mentoring support, including the outcome for our very own brand Belles of London.