Creative Industry Finance
Fyodor Golan is an award-winning fashion designer duo who’ve had a successful run of pop-ups in London, Florence (Italy) and Hong Kong.
Their combined experience within the industry includes stints at Alexander McQueen, Raf Simons, Issey Miyake and Richard Nicol. Fyodor told us: “We both studied fine art before branching out into fashion design. I studied in Antwerp, whereas Golan studied at an Italian design school in London.
“Our label is very exuberant and contemporary with a sporty, adolescent feel. As designers we are influenced by art, colours and textures; by combining these aspects we create garments that feel really intimate. When a woman gets into one of our dresses, we hope she has an emotional connection to it.
“After winning Fashion Fringe, we were accepted into the Centre of Fashion Enterprise venture programme. One of the advisors from the CFE introduced us to Stuart, our Business Advisor. Working with him gave us the opportunity to analyse our business and discover things we didn’t necessarily have the chance to find out before.
“Working this way was really supportive and personal for us. The lender had a better understanding about where we were coming from as a creative business.” Fyodor
“After a lot of consultation with Stuart, the time came and we decided to start using funding. Working this way was really supportive and personal for us. The lender had a better understanding of where we were coming from as a creative business; it was very different from a bank where they want to see the numbers and invoices first.
“We are very happy with how business is going at the moment. In the next 5-10 years, we would love to launch a menswear and a childrenswear line as well as branching out a little into accessories for womenswear. We’d love to do more collaborations with films or internationally…”
