Visibility + Growth: How to attract press + Buyers session theme

Rebecca Morter is a Forbes 30 Under 30 and Drapers 30 Under 30 entrepreneur who turned a single Soho pop-up into Lone Design Club — a global retail platform that has supported over 3,500 independent fashion brands into physical and digital retail, becoming one of the most significant champions of independent fashion in the UK and beyond.

A London College of Fashion First Class graduate, Rebecca co-founded her own womenswear label, REIN, which debuted at London Fashion Week in 2015 with British Fashion Council backing and a celebrity following that included Lady Gaga and Jessie J — a debut that immediately established her as a name to watch. Rather than simply build her own brand, however, Rebecca identified something more urgent: a systemic failure in the retail infrastructure available to independent designers. Lone Design Club was built in direct response to that gap, creating an omnichannel platform that gives thousands of independent brands the access, visibility, and selling opportunities that the mainstream retail system consistently denies them.

Her work through LDC has helped reshape the conversation around what retail can look like when it centres independent talent, sustainability, and community — and her own experience as a designer informs everything she builds for the brands she supports.

At the Creative Futures Summit 2026, Rebecca will bring a sharp, practical perspective to the Creative Business, Funding & Investment panel — sharing the commercial realities facing fashion founders today, and what she has learned building one of the UK's most innovative retail platforms for the next generation of independent creative talent.

Martyn Roberts is the founder and Director of Fashion Scout — the UK's largest and most respected independent showcase for emerging designer talent at London Fashion Week. Over more than two decades, Martyn has built Fashion Scout into a defining institution of the global fashion calendar, responsible for launching the international careers of designers including Iris Van Herpen, Gareth Pugh, Peter Pilotto, David Koma, Phoebe English, and Eudon Choi — names that now sit at the very top of the industry worldwide.

Under his leadership, Fashion Scout has produced over 400 catwalk shows across 28 seasons of London Fashion Week, and has been officially recognised as a Nominating Body for the International Woolmark Prize across 37 countries — a designation that speaks to the platform's global credibility and influence in identifying and elevating exceptional emerging talent.

In 2012, Martyn was appointed Managing and Creative Director of Graduate Fashion Week, the world's largest graduate fashion event, where he led the programme's expansion under the patronage of Dame Vivienne Westwood, Victoria Beckham, and Christopher Bailey, while attracting headline sponsors including LVMH, Givenchy, and Ralph Lauren. His work has been recognised and covered extensively across Business of Fashion, FashionUnited, Vogue, and international fashion press.

Martyn's career represents nearly three decades of dedicated work at the intersection of discovery, platform-building, and industry access — championing designers who go on to shape the global fashion conversation. At the Creative Futures Summit 2026, he brings that wealth of experience directly to the next generation of talent, speaking to what it genuinely takes to transition from a first collection to a global career, and what the industry is truly looking for in the designers it chooses to invest in.

Sennait Ghebreab is a Vogue Italia contributor, fashion journalist, published author, and fashion business academic whose work explores the intersection of fashion media, sustainability, culture, and global industry strategy. Through her editorial work with Vogue Italia, she has written on topics including African fashion weeks, sustainability, women’s empowerment, cultural identity, and the evolving global fashion landscape bringing a sharp intercultural and industry-focused perspective to contemporary fashion conversations.  

Alongside her media and editorial work, Sennait has built an extensive career across luxury fashion, holding roles at internationally recognised fashion houses including Burberry, Matthew Williamson, Pringle of Scotland, and Joseph, specialising in buying, business development, and international market strategy. Her experience across both creative and commercial sectors has positioned her as a respected voice bridging fashion media, academia, and real-world industry practice.  

She is currently Programme Leader at Istituto Marangoni London one of the world’s leading fashion institutions, with campuses across London, Milan, Paris, Miami, and beyond where she mentors and develops the next generation of fashion business leaders with a focus on innovation, sustainability, and cultural awareness.  

Sennait is also the author of Responsible Fashion Business in Practice, recognised for its practical and forward-thinking approach to responsible leadership within fashion. In 2021, she received the Italian Talents Under 40 Award from the Italian Chamber of Commerce and the Italian Embassy in London in recognition of her contribution to fashion education, innovation, and industry leadership.  

At the Creative Futures Summit 2026, Sennait will join the Media, PR & Industry Visibility panel to share insight into how fashion brands can build visibility, communicate with authenticity, and navigate the realities of today’s global fashion and media landscape.

Stacy Chan is an MIT Finance graduate who made a defining career pivot — walking away from a decade spanning investment banking, private equity, and hedge funds across New York, London, and Geneva — to build her own luxury accessories label from the ground up. The result is a brand whose Italian leather handbags are now carried by members of the British Royal Family, featured in The Telegraph, Harper's Bazaar, Elle, and The Evening Standard, and recognised with the first ever Pantone Colour Award and a finalist nomination for the Independent Handbag Design Awards.

What makes Stacy's story particularly compelling for emerging fashion founders is what she did next. Recognising a systemic gap in sustainable retail access for independent designers, she founded PLATFORM Store — a retail concept that began as a pop-up and has since grown into a permanent destination in Marylebone Village, London, championing independent, sustainable fashion brands and giving them access to the kind of physical retail presence that is increasingly difficult and expensive to achieve alone.

Stacy operates at a genuinely rare intersection: she understands capital markets and investment structures from the inside, and she understands what it means to build a creative brand with limited resources and unlimited ambition. That combination — financial literacy and creative entrepreneurship — is precisely what the next generation of fashion founders needs more of.

At the Creative Futures Summit 2026, Stacy will speak from lived experience at the convergence of capital and creativity — sharing what fashion founders need to understand about building commercially resilient businesses, navigating retail, and making the financial decisions that determine whether a creative idea becomes a lasting brand.

Amy Allison is an internationally signed model, fashion personality, and founder whose rapid rise in the industry is matched only by the breadth of what she has already built. Through her platform The Models Mode and her partnership with UDGN and Fashion Scout, Amy produced a casting call that drew over 1,000 aspiring models, delivered a sell-out London Fashion Week showcase, and earned coverage in Vogue Italia — all within her first year of launching. It is the kind of trajectory that speaks not just to talent, but to vision and execution.

Her modelling portfolio spans editorial features in British Vogue, The Guardian, Stylist Magazine, and DEEDS Magazine, with commercial campaigns for Marriott Bonvoy, LADbible, ASOS, and Lyle & Scott among her brand credits. She has walked the catwalk for luxury fashion houses including Onalaja at London Fashion Week, building a presence across both the editorial and commercial spectrums of the industry.

Beyond modelling, Amy has positioned herself as a creative entrepreneur — using her platform to democratise access to the fashion industry for aspiring models and creatives who might not otherwise find their way in. Her work through The Models Mode reflects a commitment to building inclusive pathways that mirror the kind of access the fashion industry has too often withheld.

At the Creative Futures Summit 2026, Amy will join the Routes to Industry panel and lead the Interactive Session: Styling for Impact — bringing an energy and directness to the Summit programme that is uniquely her own, and giving attendees hands-on insight into the visual power of personal styling as a tool for identity, presence, and commercial impact.

Marianna Fero has operated at the highest levels of investment banking, private equity, and international development — and now brings that expertise directly into the fashion industry as one of its most respected voices on strategy, funding, and sustainable business growth. A graduate of Bocconi University and the London School of Economics, Marianna's career spans roles as a sales trader for international banks, a private equity advisor, and an international development specialist — a breadth of financial experience that is rare in the fashion space and invaluable to the creative businesses sshe works with.

She is an Advisory Board Member of the Independent Fashion Advisory Board, affiliated with the Centre for Fashion Enterprise and UAL — the very institutions that sit at the intersection of fashion education and industry — as well as an ambassador for Acumen Fund and a mentor for Virgin Start-Up. Over more than a decade, she has advised fashion businesses at the critical intersection of finance, sustainability, and strategy, helping founders translate creative vision into commercially resilient, investor-ready propositions.

Marianna's work is defined by a commitment to making the financial language of the industry legible to the creative people building it — removing the mystification around investment, ESG funding, and business strategy, and giving fashion founders the tools they need to grow on their own terms. In an industry where access to capital remains one of the most significant barriers for independent and diverse talent, her expertise is both timely and essential.

On the Creative Business, Funding & Investment panel at the Creative Futures Summit 2026, Marianna will help attendees understand the full financial landscape available to fashion founders — from grants and impact investment to ESG-aligned funding and strategic advisory — and what it genuinely takes to build a business that is as investment-ready as it is creatively ambitious.

Andrea Varga is the founder and Director of I.DEA PR — a female-led London fashion PR agency that has helped independent designers command the attention of London Fashion Week, earn editorial coverage in major fashion titles, and build the kind of public presence that translates directly into commercial opportunity and long-term industry positioning.

A London College of Fashion graduate, Andrea built I.DEA PR from the ground up into a respected agency with a proven track record of delivering catwalk shows during London Fashion Week, producing pop-up retail experiences for emerging talent, and executing full-spectrum PR campaigns that bridge fashion, culture, and commerce. What distinguishes I.DEA PR is its dual identity — operating as both a communications agency and a retail platform, curating physical and digital selling opportunities for the independent talent it represents, and ensuring that visibility is always connected to genuine business outcomes.

Andrea's approach to fashion PR is grounded in a belief that communications should serve as a genuine growth engine for creative businesses — not a luxury add-on, but a strategic discipline that determines how a brand is perceived, who it reaches, and what opportunities it is invited into. For the independent designers UDGN works with, that perspective is invaluable.

At the Creative Futures Summit 2026, Andrea will bring a deeply practical and hard-won perspective to the Media, PR & Industry Visibility panel — sharing what the next generation of fashion designers and creative entrepreneurs truly needs to understand about commanding attention, building meaningful press relationships, and using communications as a tool for lasting brand growth.