The winner of the second annual BFC/GQ Designer Menswear Fund has been announced and this year, E. Tautz takes home the big prize. The label, which was founded in 1867 and given a facelift in 2009 under creative director Patrick Grant, has won £150,000 pounds (around $236,272) to help build the brand, as well as a year-long mentorship.
Grant accepted the prize, mentioning that the label has been up for other awards – awards it didn’t win — so he was quite surprised to finally snag top honors. “It’s surreal, I didn’t expect this at all,” Grant said upon the announcement. “I stood here twice for the BFC/Vogue [Fashion] Fund and once last year, so I know how bad it feels to miss out. But I want to say congratulations to all the other nominees. I am so proud to follow in [last year’s winner] Chris Shannon’s footsteps.”
E. Tautz beat out a bevy of labels including Sibling, Matthew Miller, Astrid Andersen and Christopher Raeburn. The panel deciding the fate of these talented menswear designers included the BFC’s Caroline Rush, British GQ‘s Dylan Jones OBE and Robert Johnson, Vertu’s Justine Rouch and Massimiliano Pogliani, the Financial Times‘ Charlie Porter, Helen Seamons of the Guardian, Alexander McQueen’s Jonathan Akeroyd and Fourmarketing’s Ben Banks.
“Patrick demonstrated unique flair, precise craftsmanship and an inherent sense of commercial awareness, which combined with the financial and mentoring support will elevate the business placing it at the forefront of the global menswear stage,” Dylan Jones OBE said. “It’s no secret that where British menswear leads the international menswear scene follows so it’s with huge gratitude to Vertu that we are proudly able to continue to drive the sector’s long-term economic growth and success.”
This injection of cash should certainly help bring the brand to a new level and we cannot wait to see how the E. Tautz business evolves.
