Staying Power: Ten Meets Erdem

What does it take to build a fashion business in London with true staying power? Surviving and showing as a British-based brand takes more than catwalk plaudits. Talent wins attention, but grit, ingenuity, the ability to adapt to changing circumstances and a deep, supportive network are the common threads behind who thrives and who becomes a footnote in fashion history.

ERDEM

“I think there’s something Darwinian about what we do,” says of Erdem Moralıoğlu, 47, of London fashion’s survival-of-the-fittest mentality. “There is an element of figuring it out and being as resourceful as possible.” Whatever doesn’t kill you in this fashion capital certainly makes you stronger, and two decades after making his debut with an AW06 collection shown at the V&A that was snapped up by Barneys, Moralıoğlu’s business is in excellent shape. The Montreal- born designer opened his second London boutique on Sloane Street in October. His first flagship opened in 2015 on South Audley Street in Mayfair and counts as a career high point, along with designing costumes for Christopher Wheeldon’s ballet, Corybantic Games, which premiered at the Royal Opera House in 2021. As does attending the Met Gala, most recently in 2024 (his date was Lily James), plus dressing the likes of Glenn Close and Kristin Scott Thomas for the ball.

A notable work placement at Vivienne Westwood, where he was allowed to explore the archives, cemented the idea of London in Moralıoğlu’s mind. He joined the Royal College of Art’s MA course in 2001 and describes a heady and formative two years, with days spent going to lectures by Alber Elbaz, Wolfgang Tillmans and Hussein Chalayan, and nights out at influential Soho club Nag Nag Nag. “You’d go to G-A-Y on Mondays with your UCAS card so you could get a discount on drinks,” he says of that time. He met his husband, the architect Phillip Joseph, who now designs his stores, at the RCA, and several people on his current team hail from that period.

After graduating, he worked for Diane von Furstenberg for a year and, in September 2005, won the inaugural Fashion Fringe, set up by the renowned journalist Colin McDowell. His first London Fashion Week collection followed a few months later. Soon he was part of a London cohort that included Roksanda, Christopher Kane, Jonathan Saunders and Richard Nicoll. They were all friends bobbing between legendary gay hangouts like The George & Dragon and The Joiner’s Arms. “That landscape of all those amazing bars and gay bars that we used to hang out in eventually all disappeared. It was so sad,” laments the designer. The sense of community he found there was strong and helped sustain him in the early years.

It was the shocking collapse of Barney’s in 2019 that taught him the most about staying the course as an independent fashion designer. “To me it was impossible that Barneys would ever go,” he reflects. He learnt to spread his bets, not rely too heavily on one stockist and grow his own sales channels. As well as his thriving e-commerce channel, he has retail spaces in South Korea and New York. “Being able to go directly to the client has definitely added an element of security, which is great.” So, when Matches fell in 2024, he wasn’t over exposed to them. “We knew there was something not right, so it was very important that you make sure they’re not that your biggest everything. And I think for a lot of young British labels, they were the biggest by far. The moment that [Matches] went destroyed a lot of things.”

In 2019 Philippa Nixon joined from Chloé as his CEO. “It was necessary if we were going to grow. You need a team that allows you this space to design a collection and do everything you need to do creatively.” For 20 years, he’s been independent but hasn’t ruled out taking outside investment in the future. “I’m so proud of our independence. Equally, it’s important to keep an open mind,” he says.

Talent, creativity and a great team have all contributed to Moralıoğlu’s two decades of success. But there’s another quality that has supercharged his rise. When it comes to surviving in business, he draws on a deep sense of resourcefulness, borne, he says, of personal loss. By the time he was 30, both his parents had passed away. “There’s something about losing that support net that changes how you approach things. You see things differently.”

He’s not been afraid to pivot. During Covid (“Thank God we had furloughing”), his store became an additional office space and hub for his growing e-commerce channel. “It was still functioning. There was still life in it. The most important thing was to keep it going, so it was just a refusal to roll over and accept that we should stop or give up. As difficult as that time was, we were still able to create, and that act of creating completely propels you.” Grit got him through.