The British Fashion Council [BFC] has just chosen TikTok as its newest partner for their NEWGEN scheme, a global designer development program that supports emerging talent in high-end fashion design.
Since 1993, NEWGEN has extended support to 250+ designers and has been a talent incubator for notable designers such as ‘Alexander McQueen, Christopher Kane, Christopher Raeburn, Craig Green, Erdem Moralıoğlu, Grace Wales Bonner, Jonathan Anderson, Molly Goddard, Nicholas Kirkwood, Osman Yousefzada, Roksanda Ilinčić and Simone Rocha’.
TikTok, whose platform streams short-form videos to a monthly audience of over 800 million users, will become a key channel for NEWGEN participants to access digital resources such as ‘designer shows, mentoring, masterclasses, and digital support’.
Moreover, the BFC will launch a TikTok account dedicated to their NEWGEN program [@bfcnewgen] in order to ‘enable even more innovative fashion content to be shared across the entire TikTok ecosystem’.
NEWGEN 2021/22 applications are now open! This year the BFC is delighted to announce @tiktok_uk, as the Principal Partner of NEWGEN. The BFC and TikTok will work together to create a bespoke programme of activity for all NEWGEN recipients. Find out more: https://t.co/zPDzMi1onk pic.twitter.com/mskn4EHIOe
— BFC (@BFC) February 5, 2021
Through this partnership, TikTok will also host a NEWGEN digital venue during London Fashion Week 2021 and all partnership content will be available on their mobile platform.
This new partnership is a key indicator that Fashion is replacing traditional brick-and-mortar stores and media outlets with digital platforms. Not only does TikTok provide an opportunity to reach a wide, gen z audience, but it can also uniquely position brands and designers at the epicenter of evolving trends and culture.
Additionally, Covid-19 has created a myriad of new challenges for the fashion industry – which further solidifies this digital revolution. With no sign of physical shows and pop-ups being able to take place in the near future, designers and brands must innovate and present their collections online or risk becoming irrelevant.
In addition to partnering with luxury high-end brands, TikTok is making huge waves in the E-commerce space, with new features – including an affiliate marketing tool – set to launch in 2021. From this, it is clear that TikTok is becoming a dominant platform for brands, designers, and individuals to modernize their brand, acquisition, and content strategies.
In our opinion, Instagram and Facebook will need to ramp up their Fashion and E-Commerce strategy in order to compete.
Otherwise, TikTok might just take the win.