Grants for Fashion Designers

Working in the fashion industry can be both exciting and challenging. One of the major problems for many new young fashion designers would be adding funding to the business. This time we would like to talk about the grants for fashion designers and other funding opportunities available for you! You will see several examples of the grant programs offered by various entities.

  grants-for-fashion-designers

List of Government Grants for Fashion Designers

Vogue Designer Fashion Fund

This one is made for fashion designers living in the UK. It’s a prestigious program from Vogue England, which provide one of a kind opportunity, allowing the winner to attend a mentoring program that lasts for a year. The grant award money is also pretty big, so this can really be a game changer for the fashion designer winning the award. Needless to say, the competition is fierce so you need to be prepared!

GQ Designer Menswear Fund

This one offers very similar requirements with little differences as compared to the Vogue England designer fashion grant. The grant winners will be able to grasp £200,000, along with professional business services and mentoring. The basic difference would be this grant is provided for men’s wear designers.

International Talent Support

For young fashion designers looking for a way to get financial support for their talents, the ITS Award may be your answer. Unlike the Vogue England Fashion grant, this one is available for designers from all countries across the globe. Last year, there are more than 1000 projects submitted by fashion designers from more than 80 countries. The ITS award is given for young, talented fashion designers, with four grant competition fields, including fashion, accessories, jewelry, and artwork.

CFDA Grant

First started by Eleanor Lambert, the CFDA program awards the designers who contribute to American fashion. Applicants are not limited to fashion, but also other areas of the industries that are related to women’s wear, men’s wear, and accessories, including creative vision, fashion icon, and fashion journalism. Fashion designers will compete for the three available spots, which will get $300,000 (first position) or $100,000 (2nd and 3rd position). Besides the grant award money, the winners will also get business mentoring from professionals. Note that you need to be somewhat experienced in the field, with more than 2 years of experience in the field, and have gained editorial coverage.

International Catwalk Competition

The International Catwalk Competition started off last year, and it was started by Graduate Fashion Week, Fashion Scout, and Vogue Italia Talents. This one is aimed at universities and students across the world. Here’s how it works: the university chooses a collection from one chosen graduate and then submits it for the competition. If the collection is chosen and won, the student will receive £1,000 and the university will receive £500. The collection will also be presented at the London Fashion Week. Note that since this is a new grant award, it may not be available annually, but it wouldn’t hurt to ask for details from their site (available in the reference section).

Other notable grants for new fashion designersare from the NYC Fashion Production Fund, British’s NEWGEN, A.N.D.A.M. Awards, LVMH Prize, etc.

References:

  • Council of Fashion Designers of America – http://cfda.com/
  • British Fashion Council – http://www.britishfashioncouncil.com/
  • Image: salaamgateway.com