Award-winner Nensi Dojaka on her future in the fashion business – Vogue Business
Mon 29 Nov
The Albanian designer discusses her future plans after winning the British Fashion Council’s 2021 Fashion Award for emerging designer talent, two months after scooping the LVMH Prize.
Nensi Dojaka, the Albanian womenswear designer best known for her layered, deconstructed designs with intricate cut-outs and strings, is the name everyone wants to know this year. She won the prestigious LVMH Prize for emerging talent back in September — and now she’s also collected the British Fashion Council Foundation Award for emerging designer talent, presented to her on Monday night at the BFC’s annual fashion awards event.
Scaling up sensibly
Dojaka’s fabrics are sourced from mills in Italy, UK, Germany and Japan. As of last season, her production shifted to Italy, working with factories recommended to her. Tomorrow London, the fashion accelerator and wholesale platform, is Dojaka’s exclusive sales and distribution partner. Her factories ship directly to Tomorrow, which pays for production and then resells the goods to retailers such as Selfridges or Dover Street Market.
“We are very aware that the new generation of designers have an incredible opportunity, but they also have operational and cash flow challenges,” says Tomorrow co-founder and CEO Stefano Martinetto. The group has helped Dojaka to find customers in new territories: her core distribution is in the UK and Italy, but the brand is starting to make inroads in other European capitals as well as China, Korea, Japan and Singapore.
The goal at Tomorrow is longevity, which requires a steady pace of growth, says Martinetto. “Three hundred stores in the world want to sell Nensi Dojaka and we have to say no. The risk of burning the brand is there, so our job is to be extremely careful and selective with who we sell to and how much we allow people to buy.”