Therefore I am very interested in promoting this scheme to any up and coming designers, collectives or labels who would benefit from some funding to further their ideas.

http://www.umbroindustries.com/

Collette Costello

I started my company in 2008 aged 26, it is a on-line vintage style fashion/ textiles company.

All the clothing on the web-site is designed by myself and manufactured in the U.K.

I won 1st place in Salford Business Start-Up awards, a cash prize of £2000 and an additional £2000 from the Princes Trust.

The money paid for a web-site, factories manufacture my first fashion collection and wholesale stock for my web-site.  I had no experience of dealing with  web-companies, factories or wholesalers.   I have established relationships within the industry.

I have proven on-line sales with 100 visits per day.  I have evidence of taking part in fashion/craft fairs, recently with a stall at Salford Food and Drinks Festival and my stock sold well.

My fashion collection has also been sold on a sale or return bases in a number of Boutiques including Junk Shop and Moo Boutique.  I have evidence of 90% sales in Junk Shop.

As a qualified fashion teacher I hosted a number of fashion courses at The Lowry centre.                       I approached a craft shop, rented a table on a Saturday morning and sold/ taught courses.

I have a team of volunteers working for me as guest on-line journalists.  My web-site is up-dated daily,  I appear a lot on the first page of Google.

Future Plans:

The money will be spent on expansion, on renting a retail outlet and new stock.

Rent for a shop in West Didsbury a thriving hub for independent boutiques including Junk Shop is approx £10,000 per year.  The grant would guarantee the rent with £5,000 and £5,000 to spend on stock. Trading would start immediately.

Without the funding I am unable to expand as any profit I have made has always been put back into the company for new stock and  advertising.

There is also a trust element with customers, a physical space enforces the idea of building the customers trust that they may not have with buying on-line, try before buy.  Confirming my web-site company would still continue to run.

The retail space would act as a showroom when selling “Collette Costello” branded wholesale stock,  meeting place for Agents, for boutique owners to visit, also to teach my fashion courses.

A bespoke, high end fashion range will be produced in-house.  This would involve hiring a number of creative staff to work in the space, hence local jobs generated.

I feel I should be awarded with the £10,000, I have evidence of working within business.  I have been invested in before,  two years later still running with hopes to expand.

In order to my keep my company running, I had been working full time in the fashion industry to gain commercial experience.   In September I started a Textiles MA in order to develop a high-end fashion collection for my brand.  Digitally printed silks inspired by the Edwardian period.  I complete study  in May, I would expect everything to be in place then to start trading with the help of your grant.