Online sales platform for new designers, Look Like Love, has launched its third annual New Talent Search – a quest to find emerging creatives it can “support, nurture and promote.”
Founded in 2011 by designer Kate Brewer, the site provides the first step into retail for many graduate designers. “It’s important to me to provide a launch pad for new designers,” she says. “It’s hard to get a foot on the ladder, and I want to make the transition from graduate to emerging designer as easy as possible. There is so much talent in the UK and the idea of setting up your own business is a daunting one for a lot of graduates. From personal experience, when you graduate, you are often left to fend for yourself with little direction or support. By providing initial support, I hope to encourage more graduates to follow their passion, by offering the essential tools to make it a viable career path.”
The New Talent Search is open to designers who have graduated in the last 12 months, or those who will graduate this summer, who are living in the UK and attended a UK-based university, and who have a small collection of pieces ready to sell to the buying public. Applications are being accepted until midnight on 12 February 2016 and a shortlist will be compiled over the following weeks. Shortlisted designers will be invited to meet Kate to talk through their collections, before a final number of designers is selected for the website.
“We are not looking for large quantities, and often work with designers who produce one-offs and limited edition pieces,” she says. “We manage the whole process from photography and editing, to looking after stock and deliveries. Currently working on a sale or return basis, it’s completely up to the designers how much stock we have, and items can be returned if they have their own orders, exhibitions or they simply want to refresh a collection.”
Designers appear on the site on a three-month rotation, providing the opportunity for designers to test out the market, and in line with her mission to support new talent Kate keeps commission as low as she can.
But what is she looking for? “Designers who have thought about the product, and the commerciality that’s needed to sell their work – you have to think about the end product and who would buy it, so creativity and commerciality have to work hand-in-hand,” says Kate, before adding, “That being said, I love to see any new and exciting designer’s work, so a mix is always good.”
Applications should be submitted to Look Like Love before midnight on 12 February 2016.
Having long been an admirer of Kate’s work, I am also delighted to announce that she will starting a weekly column for coadg profiling new designers as of next week – watch this space for more.
