Consumer tastes are ever-changing. The variety of styles and designs is mind-boggling. The business is bitchy, competition is cut-throat and trends come and go in the blink of an eye.
Welcome to the finicky world of fashion start-ups where knowing what’s hot and what’s not will determine whether your business will thrive or die.
Whatever the case, the Textile and Fashion Federation (TaFF) and Enterprise Singapore (ESG) still believe this is an industry where value can be created and extracted. To this end, they have launched The Bridge Fashion Incubator (TBFI) to help grow Singapore’s fashion industry.
TBFI is Southeast Asia’s first business incubation programme that champions not just the fashion sector but also beauty as well as tech-related brands operating at the intersection of fashion, technology and sustainability.
This incubation programme that spans 16 weeks is housed at The Cocoon Space in Design Orchard on the plot of land beside Midpoint Orchard mall. It is an intensive programme that grooms a hand-picked group of start-ups to help refine and validate their products, services, commercialisation and fundraising strategies, through tailored workshops and modules, as well as exposure to leading experts in fashion, technology, innovation and sustainability. The programme aims to bring these businesses closer to market and investor readiness, equipping them with the tools and access to a network for continued fundraising.
“In a nutshell, TBFI is a place where companies, start-ups and emerging brands come so we can help them grow their business. We cater primarily to companies that have an established track record with some commercial activity and consumer engagement,” says Benoit Valin, senior programme director for TBFI, in an interview with The Edge Singapore.
“We are quite different compared to a traditional incubator that focuses on product development or the launch of a brand. Here, we focus on the growth of the brand, which is at the ‘proof of business’ stage, where we assess the scalability and profitability of the business,” he adds.
Criteria for joining the incubator
What are the requirements a start-up must fulfil to join the programme?
Besides having an innovative product that addresses the needs of customers, the attitude of the founder plays a very important part in the selection process. “At the founders’ level, the team and I strive to identify founders who can communicate their intent, able to empathise with their target audience, while also being able to communicate that cohesively and coherently,” says Valin.
Another big part of the selection process involves “business maturity”.
“This means the businesses should have commercial footing — that they have customers, products, traction and some forward-moving momentum. That is our primary criteria,” says Valin.
Fashion is indeed a large industry so TBFI uses the word liberally. The incubator programme does not only focus on businesses that focus on clothing, accessories and jewellery but also beauty, lifestyle and technology.
The reason for taking such a loose and liberal interpretation of the fashion industry is due to the Covid-19 pandemic, which has caused several large fashion brands to also venture into the beauty and home décor sectors.
“A lot of the large fashion houses have realised that the pandemic has caused consumption of fashion to reduce because nobody is going out anymore. So, these brands started venturing into home décor, selling bedsheets and cushions while luxury brands such as Louis Vuitton are making bicycles. The brands have expanded the world of fashion to non-traditional segments,” explains Valin.
Whatever the case, TBFI aims to focus on the product or technology, as long as it is related to the fashion industry and resonates with the programme.
“As part of TaFF, being a non-profit trade association, we have a mandate to help everyone in the textile industry,” says Valin.
Since TaFF is a non-profit organisation, the start-ups that join TBFI are not provided any funding. Instead, the start-ups will go through a 16-week programme led by over 30 mentors who take an active mentoring role throughout the duration of the programme. Founders who make it into the programme can leverage on the mentors’ expertise and experience through discussions, workshops and other activities to take their business to the next level.
There will be six pitch days interspersed throughout the programme where external parties are invited to listen to the start-ups pitch their product, giving both parties the opportunities to collaborate, be it as an investor, adviser or mentor.
TBFI is supported by ESG, which makes sure all the incubatees have a clear understanding of what is available to them in terms of grants, opportunities and forms of partnership. “We frequently have people from ESG coming to pitch days to give advice and share their knowledge and expertise on how to build a company,” says Valin.
The way Valin sees it, TBFI differs greatly from the typical incubator programmes out there. “As a trade association, we are the intersection where the intersection where industry meets. We have an extremely large network and combined with our Design Orchard physical store and One Orchard online store, we have essentially a complete network to validate a brand, product or technology,” says Valin, adding that TaFF has access to retailers, manufacturers and partners to create opportunities for the incubates.
As for the companies that have a focus in technology, TBFI has locations for these companies to pilot their new technology, allowing them a space to validate their products and giving them the opportunity to access technology partners that may want to adopt the technology.
Although TBFI is open to a wide range of companies within the fashion industry, the commonality among the companies will be their maturity level. Valin explains, “Our applicants range from designers to tech companies and the business models for these companies differ. But from cohort to cohort, we try to get incubates of a similar business maturity level, so that we are able to engage with each founder at the same level.”
“We are beyond providing mentorship, guidance and inside strategy to start-ups or designers. We are also providing them the network and opportunities at a much lower threshold of effort,” says Valin, adding that TBFI is a self-fulfilling ecosystem, where the start-ups can also potentially collaborate among themselves.
Sustainability in vogue
Overall, Valin notices that the fashion industry has changed. Apart from brands including more home décor and comfortable loungewear as more people stay at home amid the pandemic, he has also noticed that sustainability has indeed become a rising trend within the fashion industry.
“Sustainability is very important in the fashion industry these days simply because reducing consumption of natural resources and the amount of waste is good for the environment. From a business model point of view, sustainability is also about how much a company manufactures. So a business should aim to be sustainable, while being able to produce less and better forecast the amount of products that customers demand over a certain time,” explains Valin.
It is not just the manufacturing segment that sees a need for improvement in the sustainability department. Valin points out that the logistics and distribution segments as well as the raw material segment can do with some improvement.
With that, technology plays an important role to crunch the data to ensure sustainability across the supply chain.
“At TBFI, we also help the companies figure out where their impact in the sustainability realm can be. Everyone wants to be a sustainable brand, but how sustainable can a brand be? In my opinion, there is no 100% sustainable brand, because the entire product life cycle is too long and too complex for every segment to be entirely sustainable,” says Valin.
“The brands come to us and we help them shape their sustainability statement and help them understand where they can be most sustainable and how they can communicate that sustainability mission to their customers and stakeholders,” he adds.
Currently, TBFI is running its fifth cohort and once the programme ends, the start-ups do not just graduate and leave since it is not an “academic institution”, says Valin. Instead, TBFI and TaFF will keep in touch with the start-ups and invite them to alumni events. “Our alumni also frequently reach out to us even after completing the course to seek advice during tough times and we will gladly be that friendly face to guide them through their difficult time,” says Valin.
Photo: The Edge Singapore/ Albert Chua
