Erdem: What's Next?

All of us at Fashion Fringe @ Covent Garden are thrilled with last week's announcement that the first British Fashion Council Vogue Designer Fashion Fund award has gone to Erdem, who won our second Fashion Fringe competition in 2005. Since then, it has been gratifying to follow his progress not only as a designer but also as a fashion businessman growing his own label with a single-minded sense of purpose. The injection of £200,000 that the award will give his business will enable this talented and ambitious young designer to really develop a business plan to enable him to survive over the next few years.

If 'survive' seems a rather apocalyptic word in this context, it actually isn't. It may seem paradoxical, but it is when fashion careers are in their third or fourth year, with a degree of sales success and press loyalty behind them, that they are at their most vulnerable. It is then that possible cracks begin to show and serious questions are asked. Is this designer a one-trick pony, doing the same thing over and over? Is he only a scrabbler after the new thing without any firm design base of his own? Has he got the staying power that will eventually truly reward the loyalty of press, stores and customers? These awkward questions demand answers when a fashion business is at the delicate point that Erdem has reached. As nearly all questions and cavils can be answered by money and the opportunity it brings, I have no doubt at all the Erdem will use this award to take his talents to increasingly higher points in the years to come – and I look forward to enjoying it.