The Tamesis
Welcome to The Scoop: a weekly email series in which I ask fashion insiders about the week’s stories. This will be a way for the Vogue business community to synthesize and reflect on the latest headlines every Friday and get a little inside scoop.
This week’s guest is Marsha Moss, Director of the Paul Smith Foundation. The foundation was established in 2020 to help emerging creatives, including but not limited to fashion designers, build business resilience. As part of this, they are launching a four-and-a-half-year program in 2024 specifically for fashion designers called Fashion Residency, which provides studio space and mentorship.
Martha joins the foundation in 2023 from Alexander McQueen’s Sarabande Foundation, where she had been with the foundation since its inception. I called her to talk.
Tell me, Martha, what’s the scoop?
Three designers supported by the Paul Smith Foundation Fashion Residency – Paolo Carzana, Karoline Vitto and Yaku – have designed an exclusive T-shirt, which will be launched in partnership with the Tate on 23 April.
What led to this partnership and what are the goals behind it?
The three designers have been supported in brand development for over 18 months. We have created this partnership with the Tate to give them the opportunity to respond creatively to art in a way that is meaningful to them. But this is also a commercial project, and they are paid to participate. Therefore, it is designed to guide them through the process of bringing a new product to market with a very important partner, from commissioning, to review by the Tate team, to entering the factory and beyond.
Can you shed some light on how the foundation works? How often do you plan to recruit a new team? How do you work with old colleagues?
The designers are being supported by a program called The Fashion Residency, set up by the Paul Smith Foundation in partnership with the Mayor of London and Projekt, and with support from the UK Government Q and the City of London Corporation. In a nutshell, it’s a business development program where six designers will receive free studio space in Smithfield, London for 18 months and attend a business skills course including 80 hours of lessons. Courses cover common legal issues, e-commerce marketing and brand graphics. It was created to touch all the different aspects of running a business, rather than the creative aspects. It was designed with Paul Smith in mind, a talented creative as well as a gifted businessman.
The first projects, starting in 2024, have just moved out of Smithfield. Through new partnerships with Paul Smith’s Foundation, Culture Mile BID, SET and Travelodge we have found another studio space for them. Travelodge invested heavily in building a studio in a derelict building on Liverpool Street.
So you’re still supporting your first people. When does the program end?
I thought, when we ran out of buildings, it was over. If people continue to give me buildings, I will continue to build studios out of them. Studio space is really hard to find, and very expensive when you do find it. But the second location comes with rental expectations. It’s a huge reduction – in name only, really, especially for a space of this standard. But we want to make sure our support is responsible and helps people grow. Because, at some point, these designers are going to have to pay London market prices, right? Once they didn’t have the rent relief, their business wouldn’t have seen such a dramatic decline.
