Fashion Scout’s Martyn Roberts on why we need to “champion" emerging talent

London has long held the label as being a ‘hotbed’ for emerging fashion talent, designers from all over the world see London Fashion Week as the place to launch their career, and Fashion Scout has been front and centre for the past ten years. Ahead of this seasons showcase, FashionUnited sat down with founder and creative director Martyn Roberts, about how Fashion Scout came about, his vision for the future, how they scout talent, and the many success stories the initiative has produced.

“I’m originally from New Zealand and when I came to London in the mid-late 90s I began working at fashion PR agency Kim Blake and I headed up emerging designers and my clients included Boudicca, and Christophe Lemaire, very cool designers,” Roberts reminisces. “As years went by I realised that emerging designers needed somewhere to show, so together with my friend John Walford, who was a show producer, we set up Fashion Scout. It was unique in a way as it was the first venue, event and showcase that just focused on emerging designers next to London Fashion Week.”

Roberts adds: “Our first season we had Karen Walker, Osman and Jean Pierre Braganza, before we were even named Fashion Scout, and then the next season Vauxhall came on board. They were sponsoring Giles Deacon and Christopher Kane and were looking for the next big thing to sponsor and we said why not sponsor us and we can scout the best new designers and that’s how we took off.”

Fashion Scout champions emerging talent at London Fashion Week

Since then Fashion Scout and its impressive Freemasons’ Hall venue with its grand architecture has become the home of off-schedule, championing international emerging designers, and really allowing a whole host of different designers including Peter Pilotto, Iris Van Herpen, Gareth Pugh, Eudon Choi, David Koma, William Tempest, Felder Felder, Maria Francesca Pepe, Piers Atkinson, Agi and Sam, Roberts|Wood, Phoebe English, Anna K, and Xiao Li to name a few, a chance to shine.

“So many designers when they first graduate they need somewhere to showcase,” explains Roberts. “Just look at Eudon Choi. We met with him when he was still working for another brand and he was a designer behind-the-scenes, we went on to support him through his first show and a further four seasons. It enabled him to get his feet on the ground and get his business going and for us we were showcasing someone who we really believed was exciting.”

He adds: “Eudon Choi was a merit award winner alongside David Koma, Phoebe English, and Roberts/Wood, these are all now showing on-schedule at London Fashion Week.”

This year’s Merit Award winner is one of the most talked about designers of the moment, Norwegian designer Edda Gimnes. A graduate from London College of Fashion, Gimnes and her eponymous label Edda, won the ‘Germany’s Designer for Tomorrow Award’ impressing Alber Elbaz and will showcase her spring/summer 2018 collection on Saturday. When talking about Edda, Roberts exclaims: “I think she is going to be a real star and is going to do really well.”

“I’m always excited to see the Merit Award winners,” says Roberts. “The first recipient was William Tempest, a very talented designer, he had the ability but not the finances or the support behind him to do it all himself and so we created an award that would grant one designer, who we feel is the most promising and the most exciting, each season, to showcase with us for free. We pay for everything, we sponsor it all and over the next two season we support them and help them develop their brand.”

“Fashion is international, talent is international and that’s what’s unique about Fashion Scout”

On-schedule shows might take all the glory and press inches, but its Fashion Scout’s commitment to promoting emerging talent that is helping to keep London at the forefront of fashion. It is also important as it keeps fashion relevant as without new talent being able to find their feet and develop there wouldn’t be much of a future for the industry.

“There’s always more that could be done for emerging designers, fashion is a very difficult business to grow, there are so many different fascias that they need to get involved in like social media and building brands, it is always a challenge, but out of all the fashion weeks, London is by far the most supportive of emerging designers,” says Roberts. “But it is also about helping these designers grow, and giving people the opportunity to see something new and exciting.”

It isn’t just about emerging British fashion talent, Fashion Scout’s aim is to offer a platform for international designers, alongside homegrown talent, to showcase the very best new talent from across the globe in one place. There is always a very international flavour, which can be seen in this year’s Ones to Watch, which features four designers, from different parts of the globe for the first time, Neo Design from Belgrade, Starsica from Seoul, Ji Won Choi is from New York, and Triinu Pundits is from Tallinn, Estonia.

“One of the strengths and weakness of London Fashion Week is that it is very British focused, the British Fashion Council is all about promoting British,” states Roberts. “We believe that fashion doesn’t just come from the UK or London, fashion is international, talent is international and that’s what is unique about Fashion Scout we showcase designers from all over the world alongside our British designers.”

“We’ve always said that a smaller, stronger collection is far more powerful than a large collection that loses focus and direction.”

But it’s more than just a show space, Fashion Scout also offers advice and support to its designers to help them grow and establish themselves as successful businesses on a global level. Over the year’s the platform has helped hundred of designers and Roberts told FashionUnited that they are also in the process of developing a longer-term programme to continue to help their talent.

“We’ve given hundreds of designers mentoring advice helping them to get their feet on the ground, as some graduates with very honed skills and are very creative people, but the whole side of running a business, learning how to price garments and construct a collection, and what works, at the same time as developing a brand is quite difficult to juggle,” says Roberts. “Sometimes the only advice they need is how to turn one great collection into a series of great collections, into a career. It is almost like musicians, they can do one wonderful album and then there is that difficult second album, what do we do now more of the same or something completely different.”

Roberts adds: “We also really encourage our designers to think about showing in different ways, whether that’s doing something different on the catwalk or a presentation. Some brands it works extremely well for and for others it isn’t really part of their DNA, for each fashion designer they have certain things that work for them and some things that don’t.

“For instance, you couldn’t imagine Julien Macdonald doing a low-key presentation, his things are all about the bang, big and noticeable. For him fashion shows are ideal.”

Another great piece of advice he always gives designers is to curate their collections, saying: “We’ve always said that a smaller, stronger collection is far more powerful than a large collection that loses focus and direction. One of the strongest shows I’ve ever seen was from Iris Van Herpen and she had 12 outfits and you were knocked over by the impact of it.”

Discovering the great talent that is showcased is a difficult one, “With changes in technology we have to constantly keep an eye on Instagram, other fashion week’s to see what’s happening around the world and graduate shows. But people also recommend designers to us, plus we have an application process where we have hundreds of designers each season who apply to us.”

Roberts adds: “We end up having this great pool of interesting designers, sometimes it isn’t right for them to show the season that they apply, they need a little time to get themselves established to sort out who they are.”

With all the talent, is there one that got away? “Of course, there has been those designers that got away,” Roberts chuckles. “Like Grace Bonner Wales, we were going to include her in something, and then at the last minute it didn’t come off, and she has gone on to do great things. The more I look at it I can’t quite work out why we made the decision at the time but it is just one of those things.”

This season’s Fashion Scout runs alongside the official on-schedule London Fashion Week schedule from September 15-19, and includes shows and presentations from Mark Fast, Billie Jacobina, Pam Hogg, Boo Pala, Dumpty, Hallie Sara, John Herrera, Katie Ann McGuigan, Rohmir, Malan Breton, and Rocky Star.

Images: courtesy of Fashion Scout