At London College of Fashion (LCF), we support student enterprise at every stage, from ideation to launch and from running to scaling a business. The LCF Graduate Futures’ team provides continued business support during and after your studies by running LCF’s Founders Club and engaging with you as a student and graduate, whether you are seeking to start a business or freelance.
LCF Founders Club is a support network exclusively for LCF alumni who are trading as Freelancers or run registered businesses in the UK and internationally. Since its inception in 2016, where 17 start-ups were in operation, the LCF Founders Club has grown to hundreds of active member businesses.
Membership provides access to a range of resources, consultations with functional specialists and networking events to exchange ideas and connect with the LCF entrepreneurial community. Founders Club members also have the opportunity to work on paid consultancy projects for industry clients, raising the visibility of their business in the creative sector.
University of the Arts London (UAL) is one of the top universities in the country for producing entrepreneurs. With a growing number of UAL graduates founding or co-founding their own businesses, UAL has become an enterprise growth destination for students, influencing the UK’s creative economy.
Contact us
If you are an alumni wanting to join the Founders Club, email us at graduate.futures@fashion.arts.ac.uk
Situated in the vibrant heart of East London, Poplar Works is a thriving community focused fashion hub. Offering a nurturing environment for budding entrepreneurs, London College of Fashion (LCF) extends a generous offer of two years complimentary studio space to seven graduate Founders at Poplar Works. This initiative aims to empower emerging talent, providing you with essential support during the pivotal early phases of your business.
Having built a career over 10 years since graduating, and after having her daughter Bay, Bliss left her role as head of buying at COS to pursue a mission to improve the shopping experience for parents buying for babies and children. Entering into this market with a design-led clothes rental subscription model (or collective) holding a mission to reduce waste with no compromise on style. The flexible subscription hero’s all the cult kidswear’ brands as well as raising up small independent brands. One year into this journey, and missing working with product, Bliss decided to act on another gap in the market for modern, high quality, sustainably produced childrenswear – and so Studio Koter was formed together with co-founder and designer Anna Smit.
Read more about OR Collective Ltd.
SAGES is an innovative materials science startup that aims to provide Natural sustainable and environmentally friendly dye, pigments, and colour solutions to multiple industries. Offering a game-changing alternative to the harmful synthetic colourants currently used globally.
Read more about SAGES.
HARRI London is a menswear design label based in London. It is renowned for his innovative designs that intertwine sculpture, craft, and craftsmanship into the very fabric of fashion. HARRI is a recipient of the British Fashion Council NEWGEN award for 2022, alongside being honoured with the Practical Intelligent Genius Foundation prize. Additionally, in 2023, he was chosen as the Forbes 30 under 30 for Europe.
“Let’s Put Him in a Vase” was the first moment where Harri became an internet sensation, later followed by his design on Sam Smith at The Brit Awards in 2023. Harri’s designs subvert the status quo and explore the potentiality of our perception, through a lens of playfulness and elegance. Embracing the idea that fashion is synonymous with breaking norms, boldness, and uniqueness, throughout each collection he pushes boundaries and redefines conventions.
We caught up with Adiam Elias to reflect on her residency with Poplar Works and what’s next for her brand, ADIAMELIAS.
Winners Ceri and Khalil tell us about their student journey and securing a studio space in the heart of Soho.
Nestled within the LCF Postgraduate Class of 2024 exhibition in the public gallery at East Bank, lies a perfectly curated pop-up shop showcasing the works from MA Fashion Entrepreneurship and Innovation graduates.
Have you ever wondered how businesses can grow sustainably? For the first time since its opening, we welcomed our LCF Founders Club into our new East Bank building to find out exactly that.
This year LCF Graduate Futures in collaboration with Soho Works, has staged events dedicated to building our Founders Club community, seeing members gather to hear experts discuss the changing nature of retail and the process of forming contracts.
On Monday 17 April, Poplar Works welcomed it's new cohort of LCF Founders Club residents with the welcome event beginning with a tour of the studio spaces.