Jun Nakamura and Heyi Wang, both MA Fashion Design Womenswear students, were selected as the winners of the Istituto Marangoni London’s Fashion Brand Incubator programme last week.

UKFT’s International Business Manager Laurian Davies joined the panel of industry guests to evaluate the student’s fashion brands and start-up ideas.

The students, based at Istituto Marangoni on Fashion Street in Shoreditch, have been studying and attending workshops covering branding and marketing; sales and buying strategies; range planning, production and costing; product to market; finance and accountancy; and business planning.

“We created this incubator programme to give design students a chance to jumpstart their knowledge on starting a business and give entrepreneurs the support they need,” said Istituto Marangoni careers service and industry relationship supervisor Alex Mesterton-Gibbons. “Most of the students are fashion design students, who would like to start their own brands.”

UKFT academic member Istituto Marangoni London is based in creative Shoreditch, where the latest trends in fashion and design are formed. The school offers a range of options to study from foundation courses through to BA (Hons) degrees, semester courses, preparatory courses and MA (Hons) degrees, as well as short courses in subjects including fashion design, fashion business, fashion buying and trend forecasting.

Istituto Marangoni was founded in 1935 and has locations in Milan, Florence, Paris, London, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Mumbai and Miami.