It’s not every day that an edition of launches its own fashion fund. Yet today Kerstin Weng, head of editorial content for Germany, took to the floor of the James Simon Galerie in Berlin to announce the seven inaugural finalists of this first year of the FCG/ Fashion Fund. They would be: Kasia Kucharska, Lou de Betoly, Lueder, Namilia, Richert Bell, SF10G, and Sia Arnika.
Congratulations to each and every one of them. They’re an impressively talented group of designers, and the winner, who receives a prize of 25,000 euros, will be announced at Germany’s Forces of Fashion event on September 23 in Munich. The fund has been launched in conjunction with the Fashion Council Germany (FCG), much as the CFDA works with American , or the British Fashion Council with UK.
And it has done so with the blessing of Michael Biel, Secretary of State for the city of Berlin, who has lent his impressive and weighty support. In other words: It all aids and abets the idea that by pulling together, you can support the next generation of talents. And sometimes—well, usually, all the time, in fact—there’s an urgency to that.
“It can feel like we are struggling to keep our talents in this country,” said Weng. “All of them want to show in Paris. So the fund is intended to put Berlin back on the map, and give our designers support, whether it’s financial or press exposure.
For them and their work to be seen here, in this city.” The choice of unveiling the first finalists in Berlin .