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I’m sitting across from Roksanda Ilinčić and her new investment partner, Damian Hopkins, in a meeting room in the Roksanda studio in East London. Behind me, the Spring/Summer 2025 collection hangs on rails: silk, taffeta and liquid velvet are constructed into the designer’s signature voluminous shapes. In the studio next door, pattern cutting is in progress. Philip Bueno de Mesquita, Ilinčić’s husband and the brand’s CEO since April 2022, pops out of an office in the back to say hi. It’s calm, but then we’re still two weeks out from Roksanda’s London Fashion Week show.
We’re here to talk about the plans for Roksanda under its new majority stakeholder The Brand Group (TBG). Hopkins formed the fashion incubator and accelerator, which is part of the $2-billion-turnover manufacturing, sourcing and investment platform PDS, with his business partner Sunny Malhotra. TBG officially launches today, though its foundations were laid in the summer of 2023 when Hopkins brought a new womenswear label to market called Vivere, which is now part of TBG’s portfolio. TBG acquired Roksanda’s IP in May, after the brand filed notice of intent to appoint administrators.
“The beginning of the year was a difficult time for the brand,” says Ilinčić. “The challenges created by the pandemic and Brexit were followed by a swift downturn in the luxury landscape.”
In the short-term, TBG is focusing on stabilising Roksanda: paying suppliers and overhauling its back office operations, including the commercial, finance, logistics and HR functions. Then, the idea is to leverage TBG’s expertise in design, production, distribution, retailing and licensing to expand the brand. This will include relaunching its childrenswear line and eyeing further opportunities in the global markets in which it operates: namely Asia, the Middle East and North America. Roksanda has over 50 stockists globally, including Harrods, Selfridges, Mytheresa, Net-a-Porter and Le Bon Marché.
“I think we bring that financial discipline, which is going to really help brands,” says Malhotra, who is the owner of Hong Kong-based private label fashion supplier Simple Approach — also part of the PDS group. (PDS operates a global network of 50 offices across more than 20 countries, employing more than 11,000 people, and owns several factories in Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.)
Ilinčić, meanwhile, remains firmly in creative control. “It has taken that weight off us and provided the security and stability that will help us to grow,” the designer says.
This formula can be applied to other independent fashion brands that are struggling financially, says Hopkins — of which there are many. Indeed, TBG’s launch is timely; if ever there was a need for a white knight to prop up British brands, it’s now. “It’s been getting tougher and tougher for independent brands and businesses to survive in the current landscape. The only way you can do it is to have economies of scale,” says Hopkins.
That’s not to say TBG is the first: Tomorrow London, for example, also invests in and acquires brands with the intention of scaling them up. But the more the merrier, says Caroline Rush, CEO of the British Fashion Council (BFC): “This is what the British industry needs; more companies that are willing to put up the financing to enable brands to scale.”
TBG has already added a third name to its portfolio: adaptive fashion specialist Unhidden. Founded by Victoria Jenkins in late 2020, Unhidden became the first adaptive fashion brand to show at London Fashion Week in February 2023, featuring 30 models with disabilities and visible differences on the runway. TBG is now steering Jenkins towards collaborations. She partnered with high street fashion chain Primark to launch its first adaptive range in July, though it was under her own name rather than Unhidden — Unhidden branded collabs will come next.
Building The Brand Group
Both Hopkins and Malhotra have been in the industry for decades. Hopkins started out with his own childrenswear wholesale business in 1990, which he ran for 10 years. Since then, he has collaborated with major retailers, brands and celebrities to help them design, produce, license and deliver their products, both in the UK and internationally. He was awarded a CBE for services to the retail and fashion industry in the first of the King’s birthday honours list in 2023 (Ilinčić was awarded an MBE in that same list, also in recognition of her contribution to fashion).
The idea for TBG started to germinate during the pandemic. “A lot of brands had started up, and direct-to-consumer had accelerated quickly — but they were in a bubble,” says Hopkins. “I wanted to build a platform that could support growing brands, giving them the expertise across multiple areas, whether that’s brand development, licensing or sourcing.”
In May 2023, Hopkins sold a significant stake in his licensing business Radius to PDS, staying on as founder and CEO of what is now known as PDS Radius Brands. Soon after, he met Malhotra. “Sunny has a very successful sourcing business with a sizeable turnover, and he was also looking at getting involved in supporting brands. He and I get on very well; we’re very similar,” explains Hopkins.
In July 2023, Hopkins teamed up with British-American designer Savannah Miller — who has worked with the likes of Alexander McQueen and Matthew Williamson and, at one point, ran her own label with her sister, actress Sienna Miller — to launch a new contemporary womenswear brand called Vivere. “We wanted to create a brand that was affordable, contemporary, that was a bit below the Me+Ems of this world [in terms of price],” says Hopkins. The brand is now stocked in British department store John Lewis and gearing up to enter Next, along with a number of independent boutiques.
Hopkins and Malhotra began looking for another brand to invest in. “We already knew Roksanda and Phil and some of the senior management team. It worked for us timing-wise that there was an opportunity to get involved with the business on a strategic level,” says Hopkins.
Balancing creative with commercial
In the studio, Ilinčić gives me a sneak peek of some outlandishly fluffy shoes that some of the models will be wearing on the runway this season. They are part of her collaboration with footwear brand Fitflop, which soft launched earlier this year (although these particular iterations will not be available to buy).
A few days later, Roksanda unveils another collaboration, this time with supermarket fashion brand George at Asda. Proceeds from the sale of the 30-piece collection will go to the BFC Foundation, which supports the Newgen talent programme (of which Ilinčić is an alumnus). Roksanda has also collaborated with Lululemon, Fila and Barbour, among others.
It’s all an awareness play, says Hopkins. “Roksanda is well known in the fashion world, but it is not a name known to everybody because she’s a luxury designer. She’s not a household name. Doing the collaborations, bringing back childrenswear — it raises her awareness.” (Ilinčić is already working on reviving her childrenswear brand, Blossom, which first launched in 2012 but has since been rested.)
Hopkins is also steering collaborations through PDS Radius Brands. The latest is with British interior designer Kelly Hoppen and high street retailer Marks Spencer, which launched on 12 September (PDS Radius Brands has a licensing relationship with Hoppen; it doesn’t own her brand).
Could so many collaborations and brand extensions risk diluting a brand — especially in Roksanda’s case, given its luxury positioning? “We want to craft opportunities that are close to the core of the brand,” says Hopkins. “The most important thing is the brand identity; we’re not going to damage that because that’s the crown jewels. But we’ve got to do things that will compliment it, that make sense. We’re not going to force any of our businesses to go down a path they’re not comfortable with.”
Roksanda’s SS25 show is held at the top of a brand-new office redevelopment called Space House, overlooking the London skyline. The collection shows a continuation of form: strong, feminine designs inspired this season by the work of Agnes Denes, the Hungarian artist behind “Wheatfield – A Confrontation”. It’s a testament to why she’s nominated for womenswear designer of the year at this year’s Fashion Awards. After the show, there’s a reception to which various retailers are invited — a nod to the need to keep a firm eye on the commercial, as well as the creative.
“There are many great ideas in the pipeline,” says Ilinčić. “I’m really happy that I’m going to be able to present them to the world.”
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