Agenda-setting intelligence, analysis and advice for the global fashion community.

Opinion: What Investors Won’t Tell You About Fund Raising

When it comes to raising capital, the gap between what fashion and beauty founders believe is happening and what is actually happening is often enormous, writes Olivier Rivard-Cohen.

Olivier Rivard-Cohen

27 April 2026

The founder had everything: a Bergdorf window, two seasons of sold-out drops, a customer waiting list and a deck that opened with “the next generation of European luxury.” Six months later, the fund raising process was on hold and the 8th arrondissement bankers had stopped returning calls. Not because the brand was weak, but because every investor who passed on it said the same thing privately: we couldn’t get comfortable with what happens after the hype.

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Entrepreneurship:Investment

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