Introducing The Club News; Industry + Community Updates, Store announcements, whats on this month + more. Your Bi-monthly Newsletter for independent designers + brands.
"Happy Thursday! Welcome to the first (re-vamped!) edition of the Lone Design Club INDUSTRY Newsletter - We've decided to give these newsletters a little makeover, to be more informative and give you the full low down on what's happening in the industry, all the ins and outs, tidbits of info we get sent and of course the LDC community. So thank you for coming along for the ride!
This week we hosted our first 2020 monthly Designer Meetup (which you'll be pleased to know will become a regular thing! Yay!) and we kicked off the year with a brand masterclass on nothing other than everyone's favourite topic... "All you need to know about Brexit", hosted in partnership with Alinea Law. Im sure you're all sick of us banging on about our upcoming February London and Milan Fashion Week stores - Nikki has certainly been heavy on the old marketing! - both stores launch in about two weeks time and are set to be our best yet! I truly cannot wait to be jumping between stores, attending events and meeting all the designers!
Anyway, enjoy this week's read and please do drop us reply with your thoughts and feedback - we love hearing from you guys!"
Founder + CEO, Rebecca Morter
COMING UP.
THE LDC ACCELERATOR
The second half of 2019 saw the soft launch of our accelerator programme, this year we want to make it bigger and better. We started with a series of masterclasses; to support independent brand entrepreneurs learn all the areas necessary to scale a new business. Through in-person events, expert tutorials, resource-sharing amongst the community, we empower you to take control of your business. Let us be your shoulder to lean on.
LDC Accelerator x Fashion Heaven Inc: Fashion Founders - How to scale your business 20TH FEBRUARY | 6.30 - 9 PM | 14 - 16 GREAT PULTENEY ST, SOHO, LONDON
Building a brand isn’t easy and knowing how to take your business to the next level is never obvious. This Fashion Heaven Inc. event will bring these realities to the surface, bringing you personalised advice on scaling and investing in your business. It is about the journey, not the destination. Sustainable growth begins organically and evolves through considered strategic moves.
Why is this helpful?
Every business structure is different and as a founder, learning the step by step process and journey of building a brand from expert advisors is invaluable. Meet the Fashion Heaven Inc team and put your brand on the right path to growth.
BENJAMIN PARK Brand Development Consultant. Benjamin’s experience as a fashion journalist, having written for numerous prestigious publications, in addition to his work at Prada and several other fashion houses, has given him the industry insider tactics and contacts to help smaller brands flourish. By analysing your brand in close collaboration with yourself, we create a personal and immersive experience which allows you to keep the integrity of your brand while we help it to grow and size-up. To date, we have grown 12 brands into international companies, with 9 being stocked by world-renowned department stores and retailers such as Harrods, Dover Street Market and Matches Fashion. The other 3 brands now have developed a customer base to the extent that they operate solely. Benjamin x LDC is offering special introductory prices for a 1-1 consultancy appointment this February. Limited spaces, dates + times available.
We've got a whole series of pop up stores in the works for 2020! The full calendar can be seen on our website here. With monthly stores planned in London and Milan, we will also be expanding further into the UK this year as well as other European cities such as berlin and Paris (We are super excited about this one!)
KICKING OFF 2020 W. FASHION MONTH POP-UPS
We are super excited about our February Fashion Week stores happening in London and Milan! For the first time in both stores we will have an immersive beauty bar - where customers can pre-book free consultations with the makers/beauticians and turn up for a 15 minute 1-1 pamper session - giving beauty and skincare brands the opportunity to get involved and in front of customers!
We also have our own LDC Designer Presentations Schedule happening 14-16th Feb in London where a selection of our designers will be showcasing new season collections to press and industry - we are very excited about this and how incredible these will look in the Soho venue we have! After the success of last season's LDC The EDIT, we are back with two evenings featuring a selection of LDC brands in a collective presentation style format across our opening night and LFW closing party in collaboration with Boyfriend Magazine. Our Milan store has a very exciting collaboration with renowned Italian male model Marco Castelli who will be stocked in the store and hosting a private press event that we cant wait for!
“Presenting our SS19 collection during London Fashion Week with LDC brought us significantly increased traffic to our website and social media channels, and lead to in-store purchases and subsequent online orders through our own shop over the following month or two. We knew it might be difficult to attract the fashion press so we targeted our customer base, influencers, bloggers, and niche/industry press, for a B2C sales focused event.” - Pia, Designer of Studio Pia.
ENOUGH ABOUT US, let's talk about you! Have any news to share? Anything we can do to help better support you and your business? Have something to shout about, a new collection launch, looking to hire or want to collaborate?
Share your news with us here
JOIN OUR CLOSED FACEBOOK COMMUNITYfor e-networking, resource-sharing, ask questions and receive answers from those in the community. Get live updates, opportunities + news direct from the LDC team.
FROM THE TEAM
Industry news + inspo that the LDC team are sharing + excited by right now.
"If it isnt stylish, Fashion can forget Sustainability" by Anousha Couttigane in Retail Week. Fashion has always been a sector that leads change. What we see happening in this market often has the potential to set the pace of change across the retail industry.
"Westfield Reveals what's next for Retail" Fashion United, Shopping centre group Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield has unveiled what it predicts will be the biggest retail trends for the next decade in Europe, including that 2025 will be the experience tipping point in retail when more than half of retail space in stores will be dedicated to providing experiences.
"Can Fashion Be Ethical and Sustainable" BBC, Great British Sewing Bee judge Patrick Grant and Jenny Holloway, who runs an ethical fast fashion factory, debate the issue.
Send us a message!Comments, questions, advice? Know any brands or designers you you think would like to hear from us?
Curated by Rebecca Morter, Founder + CEO of Lone design Club
