We are committed to doing what it takes to lift up and support small businesses who operate with integrity, grit, passion and resilience – backing owners and teams who work hard to create exciting, unique fashion. We understand, as do our brand partners, what it takes to start and grow a business from scratch and it’s this understanding that binds us together in a system of kinship.
How It Used To Be
It’s an exciting time to be an independent fashion brand. When we started this business ten years ago, we wanted to give a platform to designers who had neither the relationships nor funding to get their designs to customers who might love them.
We were seeing exciting designs surface with nowhere to live except for trade shows, in buyers’ appointments (if you were lucky!) and in the back pages of magazine advertorials. When we approached young brands at trade shows, at Fashion Week, and at markets, they were excited about the idea of selling directly to customers but nervous about taking on stock risk and running their business independently.
A New Landscape For Fashion Brands
Today’s picture is different. A new generation of brand owners want to reach customers directly. They want to evolve their offering for those customers instead of buyers and editors, and if they take on a traditional wholesale partner it’s in addition to their core strategy. Positive changes, for sure.
Simultaneously, the barriers to creating a fashion brand have never been lower. Today, a brand owner has to work especially hard to stand out and always stay a step ahead of the high street’s major chains. The culture of mass market brands and the high street copying designs from smaller designers is well documented, and invariably indie brands don’t have the legal or financial resources to pursue copyright action. Whilst competitive market growth makes this an exciting time to sell fashion online, it’s not easy, particularly for emerging designers.
A System Of Kinship
Anyone who’s grown their own business will understand, on a level no one else does, the scope of the challenges involved. Along the way, you learn to manage fear of failure, the weight of responsibility, the pressure of your own expectations, and so much more.
At SilkFred, we’ve built a community of talented entrepreneurs who understand these challenges. Whilst they might share a competitive spirit, they also hold a special kinship with one another, and a respect for the other’s efforts.
On Growing With Integrity
We are all cut from a different cloth to the long established high street and we believe in a code of integrity and respect towards our community and within it.
In fashion, it’s common that people reach the same ideas at the same time. When the same influences are interpreted, it’s normal to find similar-looking styles. We expect our community of brands to strive for uniqueness in their offering and not to intentionally copy the designs of others.
Our message to brands who seek to copy the designs of their fellow brands is: you are leaving yourself a step behind. Why not get out in front, focus on your own designs, have respect for your fellow entrepreneurs, and work with integrity? You’ll feel proud and you’ll be respected.
At SilkFred, we will be taking a stand against brands who intentionally seek to steal from other independent brands – treading down their peers to rise up – and will remove those brands from our community.
Along with our community of entrepreneurs, we want to continue to build out an ecosystem where anyone who wants to start and grow a fashion brand can thrive. It will be competitive, sure, but we’ll do what it takes to lift up those who work hard to create exciting, unique fashion.
Team SF x
