The much lauded London-based menswear designer Katie Eary is now participating in the first ever public fashion funding scheme from Catwalk Genius. Eary will be creating a debut womenswear collection that will be available exclusively from Catwalk Genius this Summer 2010. The collection will be funded through public investment and shares in Eary’s collection will be available to purchase from April 26th 2010. Her bold statement prints, fusion of traditional tailoring with contemporary design details and almost macabre accessories are best described as ‘aggressively beautiful’.

The ‘crowd-funding’ principle adopted by Catwalk Genius is both simple and effective (it has been applied to other industries including film, Franny Armstrong’s ‘Age of Stupid’ being a perfect example of the success that can be achieved). The concept offers customers the opportunity to support designers and brands with a small financial contribution for a share of the final profit. Most new business ventures seek funding from sole or few investors who each invest large sums of money. Crowd-funding invites a wide audience to invest a small amount of money by purchasing ‘shares’ so that the financial risks to each investor are as much or as little as they choose.