London Fashion Week teams up with Amazon Fashion

The British Fashion Council is joining forces with Amazon Fashion during London Fashion Week to support British fashion designers impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic with a new designer digital storefront.

The Amazon Fashion x London Fashion Week digital boutique will support and enable small and medium-sized British fashion designers to showcase their collections and tell their brand story to Amazon customers, whilst also providing an opportunity to utilise Amazon’s speed and convenience of delivery.

The digital storefront will be available to Amazon customers across five of its European websites the UK, Germany, France, Italy, and Spain, including Prime members, reaching tens of millions of customers.

In the UK, customers can shop from a curation of independent and local fashion designers for the first time at amazon.co.uk/LondonFashionWeek, including spring/summer collections and archival product across ready-to-wear, party wear, loungewear, lingerie, and footwear. Menswear and womenswear designers taking part include Preen, Les Girls Les Boys, British footwear designer Grenson, De La Vali, shoe brand Kat Maconie, Teija, 1x1 Studio, Ponder.ER, and Olubiyi Thomas.

Commenting on the initiative, John Boumphrey, vice president of Amazon Fashion Europe, said in a statement: “We admire the work that the British Fashion Council is doing to support designers during the current crisis and are thrilled to be able to extend our services to some of the most exciting UK designers, introducing them to new audiences and supporting with logistics.

“We are committed to helping the fashion industry during this difficult time through Amazon Fashion’s new London Fashion Week digital storefront, supporting both household names and independent brands.”

Amazon Fashion x London Fashion Week digital storefront to support British fashion designers

Speaking about working with Amazon Fashion, Justin Thornton, co-founder of Preen, said: "London Fashion Week will always be unique for both talent and creativity, a must for designers to showcase their collections. With all the change and disruption we have seen this year, now is a great time to explore different ways to share 'Preen Line,' our contemporary brand, with millions of potential new customers across Europe. Working with Amazon Fashion will allow us to do this, which is very exciting.”

De La Vali founders, Jana Sacha Haveman and Laura Castro, added: “We're pleased to be working with Amazon Fashion and the British Fashion Council as part of this London Fashion Week initiative supporting independent British brands. It's an extraordinary time for fashion, and we're looking forward to evolving alongside the industry and exploring the new creative opportunities this opens up for us.”

Also available to purchase from the Amazon Fashion x London Fashion Week storefront will be the Great British Designer Face Coverings, a collection of reusable, non-medical face masks created by Bags of Ethics in partnership with the British Fashion Council, and designed in London by six British designers - Rixo, Halpern, Liam Hodges, Mulberry, Julien Macdonald, and Raeburn. 100 percent of sale profits will be split between NHS Charities Together Covid-19 Urgent Appeal, the BFC Foundation Fashion Fund, and Wings of Hope Children’s Charity.

The Amazon Fashion x London Fashion Week digital storefront is part of a wider project entitled ‘Amazon Fashion Connects’, a collection of initiatives with key industry partners that provides Amazon resources and infrastructure to budding and established young designers throughout Europe.

The dedicated storefront also features links to the British Fashion Council’s official BFC Foundation Fashion Fund for the Covid Crisis, established to support creative fashion businesses and individuals to survive and navigate the coronavirus crisis. So far, the BFC Foundation has made 1,500,000 pounds of emergency funds available, with the majority supporting designer businesses and with a portion of funds also allocated to students, underpinning the future generation of creative talent.

Amazon Fashion, alongside other partner fashion designers and retailers, donated to the fund in early April when the initiative was launched. As an extension to this support, Amazon Fashion has also offered its European photography studio in Hoxton free of charge to designer members of the British Fashion Council looking for studio space during this time.

Caroline Rush, chief executive of the British Fashion Council, added: “The British Fashion Council is grateful for Amazon’s support during Covid-19, helping the brands most vulnerable at this time. The Amazon Fashion x London Fashion Week digital storefront provides a unique space for designers to access new customers and distribution that will allow their businesses to continue to grow, whilst providing them with ongoing support and expertise.”

Amazon Fashion makes ties with fashion organisations across the world

This venture with the British Fashion Council is the latest initiative from Amazon, outside of the UK, Amazon Fashion has collaborated with CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund’s ‘A Common Thread’ to support independent American designers affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. While in France, Amazon has made a donation to the Institut Français de la Mode in order to contribute to the funding of social and diversity scholarships for students in creative programs. This donation will be renewed over a period of three years, corresponding to the scholarships of students.

In Italy, Amazon Fashion has supported Camera Della Moda Italiana’s ‘Together for Tomorrow’ Covid-19 relief fund, through a donation that provides immediate financial support to Italian fashion brands most affected by the pandemic throughout the country, while in Spain, Amazon Fashion became an official partner of the Mercedes Benz Fashion Week Madrid. A number of Spanish designers’ catwalk shows were live-streamed across Amazon Fashion’s social media channels, with many of their collections becoming immediately shoppable at Amazon Fashion as soon as the shows finished.

“Through our Amazon Fashion Connects initiative, we have been able to work with some of Europe’s most innovative designers for the first time,” explained Edward Westcott, Amazon seller services director for fashion, Europe. “Supporting local fashion designers is something we are extremely passionate about at Amazon, and we think our customers are going to love being able to shop these exciting collections at the click of a button.”

The Amazon Fashion x London Fashion Week digital storefront launches on the first day of London Fashion Week, September 17.

Images: courtesy of Amazon Fashion