Nicholas Kirkwood wins the BFC/Vogue Fashion Fund

By

Florent Gilles

Published
Jan 30, 2013

It is the promise of change for Nicholas Kirkwood, the golden boy of footwear of the past five years. After receiving the BFC/Vogue Designer Fashion Fund on Tuesday, the artistic director of Italian fashion house Pollini (Aeffe) should be able to propel his own niche line, Nicholas Kirwood, into a global brand. Just a few weeks ago, Nicholas Kirkwood showed his first line of masculine shoes at London Collections: Men.

Over the course of the next 18 months, the BFC/Vogue Designer Fashion Fund will allow the designer – who launched his brand 8 years ago - to benefit from a “business coaching” scheme designed to help develop the company’s business plan. The Nicholas Kirkswood office is based in Mayfair, just above the designer’s only store on Mount Street. The designer, who won over the jury with his three-year business plan created by himself and Christopher Suarez, was one of the first to modernize platform shoes by propelling it into a radical and futuristic universe. Nicholas Kirkwood also launched a collection of studded shoes in collaboration with California design-duo, Rodarte.

Nicholas Kirkwood is sold at Lane Crawford, 10 Corso Como and Barney’s New York. The designer also has the support of Maria Luisa, who recently interviewed him for the Italian site, The Corner.

The Central Saint Martins graduate was up against the likes of Mary Katrantzou, Roksanda Ilincic, Peter Pilotto and Emilia Wickstead for the fund. Since it was created in 2010, the BFC/Vogue Designer Fashion Fund has helped boost the careers of Erdem – for who Nicholas designs the shoes – as well and Jonathan Saunders and Christopher Kane, the young Scotsman who has just entered the PPR portfolio.