About fashion angel
Fashion Angel is a fashion industry support service offering business consultancy, business mentoring, events and access to start-up funding. We work with both fashion start-ups and established fashion businesses, as well as delivering business consultancy services for the corporate and education sectors.
About fashion angel
Fashion Angel is a fashion industry support service offering business consultancy, business mentoring, events and access to start-up funding. We work with both fashion start-ups and established fashion businesses, as well as delivering business consultancy services for the corporate and education sectors.
We are here to offer support and guidance at every stage of the business journey.
Our mission is to give fashion designers and entrepreneurs the tools they need to connect creativity with the necessary entrepreneurial skills to enable them to start up and grow a sustainable & successful fashion business.
With our proven track record, we’re also engaged by prestigious organisations to manage and deliver their creative industry programmes. Clients include the RCA Innovate Accelerator, Fashion and Textile Museum, British Library BIPC, UK Fashion and Textile Association, Department of International Trade, Enterprise Nation, Fashion District, Cockpit Arts, and many FE & HE education providers.
Background
Fashion Angel was founded in 2012 by Alison Lewy MBE, respected fashion industry expert and author of Design Create Sell – a guide to starting and running a fashion business. It sprang from her time as Commercial Director of the Fashion and Textile Museum, where she encountered a constant demand from graduates wanting to know how to start up a fashion business and established fashion brands wanting to grow and needing fashion industry specific support.
A natural and instinctive entrepreneur herself, Alison brings extensive industry knowledge to challenge the high failure rate of fashion businesses, often due as much to lack of business expertise and financial control, as to lack of funding. Alison has handpicked a team of mentors and advisors whose different strengths together create a formidable creative, financial and strategic planning resource.
Meet the team
Our handpicked team of mentors are fashion industry entrepreneurs passionate about supporting the next generation of fashion entrepreneurs.
Alison Lewy MBE
Founder of Fashion Angel, fashion business expert and author
Alison founded Fashion Angel in 2012. Previously Alison ran her own fashion brand for over 15 years producing under her own eponymous label, as well as being engaged as a consultant on sourcing and production for luxury designers including Matthew Williamson and Preen.
Whilst running her fashion brand she worked with Newham College to create and deliver business support programmes to assist creative businesses in developing business skills to become more sustainable. She set up innovative business mentoring schemes that are now established models adopted by other organisations.
Alison became the Commercial Director of the Fashion and Textile Museum in 2006 which she positioned as a hub for the fashion and textile sector, and continued to run mentoring and business support programmes as part of the museum’s offer, as well as setting up the Shop@FTM to showcase new designers.
Seeing the constant demand from fashion designers in need of sector specific support, prompted her to set up Fashion Angel in 2012, to help challenge the high failure rate of fashion businesses.
In 2016 Alison was awarded an MBE for founding Fashion Angel and in recognition of her services to the fashion industry.
She was also selected as one of the inaugural The Maserati 100 – a definitive list celebrating Britain’s most successful business leaders actively supporting the next generation of entrepreneurs – in recognition of the continuing support she gives to fashion start-ups.
She is one of Fashion Angel’s lead mentors, hosts popular workshops & events, and speaks regularly at business events and appears in the media commenting on fashion industry issues.
In addition, Alison is the best-selling author of Design Create Sell – a guide to starting and running a successful fashion business.
Sue
Pickering
Sue
Pickering
Sue has worked in fashion retail for over 30 years, including 10 years at board level. Her experience spans global businesses such as Marks & Spencer, Asda, New Look, Hunkemoller & as Womenswear Director at Sweaty Betty, covering all aspects of product strategy.
Read more
Sasha
Ramdoo
Sasha
Ramdoo
Sasha is a successful Senior Buyer with over 20 years of industry experience working for a number of large high street retailers. Her career has resulted in extensive product development knowledge covering a number of categories including Womenswear, and Accessories and she has specialist knowledge in Swimwear and Lingerie.
Read more
Vivienne
Austin
Vivienne
Austin
Vivienne has extensive fashion industry experience as a designer, lecturer and mentor.
She is currently founder of luxury sustainable accessory brand Scarlet Destiny, UK
Read more