Photo: https://disk.360.yandex.ru/d/gV6QXLoKr-gDsQ

Fashion is increasingly seeking a place in the investment portfolios of major funds, yet evaluating fashion projects remains a challenging task due to the cyclical nature of trends, reputational risks, and non-standard KPIs.

At the session “Investments in the Creative Industries. Can Fashion Compete with Startups?”, held on September 28 as part of the BRICS+ Fashion Summit, participants discussed the criteria investors use to evaluate fashion businesses, the role of brands and cultural capital in attracting investment, and what companies need to scale and enter international markets.

The discussion brought together Javiera Granja, General Coordinator of Nicaragua Diseña; Anton Letushev, CEO of Melon Fashion Group; Anis Montasser, Founder and CEO of Sea Design Lab and Tunis Fashion Week; Ilya Nafeev, CEO of Dva Myacha; and Mustafa Hassanali, Chairman of Swahili Fashion Week and the Fashion Association of Tanzania.

Attracting investment to the fashion industry requires not only talent and creativity, but also strategic planning that makes it possible to bring together available resources, said Javiera Granja, General Coordinator of Nicaragua Diseña – a platform established 15 years ago with the support of the Government of Nicaragua to develop the local fashion, art, and design industries and promote their participants in international markets.
Anis Montasser, Founder and CEO of Sea Design Lab and Tunis Fashion Week, presented an example of a project combining fashion, innovation, and environmental sustainability. Sea Design Lab focuses on recycling plastic washed up on the seashore into a material that is then used to create clothing and accessories. According to him, projects of this kind make it possible to create new products at the intersection of fashion, environmental sustainability, and innovation, which is why they may have the potential to scale.

Anton Letushev, CEO of Melon Fashion Group, noted that the fashion industry differs from many other areas of investment: in addition to standard financial indicators, investors have to take into account factors that are more difficult to measure quantitatively. “I think creativity and the designer’s ability to find a product that will be of interest, as well as a certain brand DNA – all of this is very important, but it is not enough to build a business on,” he said. According to him, it is necessary to assess whether a company can create a viable business model that generates revenue and maintains customer interest over the long term.
At the same time, regardless of how the business scales, the creative component, in Anton Letushev’s view, should remain under the control of the brand’s creators: “Everything related to product creation, design, marketing, and developing store concepts cannot be outsourced – it is something that must remain in-house; it is the heart of any fashion business.”

Ilya Nafeev, CEO of Dva Myacha, emphasized that when brands enter international markets, they should first assess the competitiveness of their product, how well it aligns with the specifics of a particular foreign market, and whether the team has the capacity to scale production.
The BRICS+ Fashion Summit is taking place in parallel with Moscow Fashion Week, which runs from September 26 to October 1 at the Central Exhibition Hall 'Manege.' Admission to all events is free with prior registration.

The strategic partner of the BRICS+ Fashion Summit is Sber.

The general partner of the BRICS+ Fashion Summit is Wildberries.

The technology partner of the BRICS+ Fashion Summit is the GigaChat neural network.

More content from the BRICS+ Fashion Summit is available on the event's official Wibes account, as well as under the hashtag #BRICSFashionSummit.

The official photo service for the event is the Rodchenko Moscow School of Photography and Multimedia.