Underrepresented: British Fashion Needs Diversity and Representation to Thrive with Ahmet Emin Hondor

With nearly 15 years in the British fashion industry, Ahmet Emin Hondor shares his journey advocating for entrepreneurship and resilience among emerging designers with the British Fashion Council. He reflects on how representation and cultural identity have shaped his path, while also addressing the mental drain of navigating microaggressions masked as politeness as a Turkish man in London. For Ahmet, community engagement is crucial to driving meaningful inclusion in the British fashion industry. Beyond his work with the British Fashion Council, he organizes London's Gay Pride, championing diversity, mental well-being, and authentic storytelling. Through his efforts, he is helping to shift global narratives, empower LGBTQ+ voices, and build sustainable opportunities for underrepresented founders in the UK.

Redefining Inclusion in Fashion:
  • Beyond tokenism – meaningful inclusion requires empowerment, not just visibility.
 • Culture as creativity – personal identity shapes design, styling, and storytelling.
 • Mental health matters – navigating exclusion and toxic environments with resilience.
 • Pride & responsibility – corporate inclusivity should last beyond seasonal campaigns.
 • Emerging designers – cultural heritage can be a competitive edge in business.

Connect with Ahmed: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/ahmeteh

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Transcript

Beatrice: 0:00

Hello, I'm Beatrice Newman. We're doing something a little different for this series and I'll be your host instead of your usual host, Peter. This is the Underrepresented Entrepreneur Series. Being a Black female founder myself, I know how hard it can be to do business in London. This series tells the stories of founders that have successfully navigated business where sometimes their backgrounds limit opportunities. What does inclusivity really mean when culture, community, and identity collide? Especially in spaces where stereotypes still linger. In today's episode, we're joined by the unapologetically bold Ahmet Emin Hondor, brand partnerships and new business at BSC, as he challenges perceptions and shares what it means to show up as your full self in an industry that doesn't always make space a difference. Get ready. This conversation might just shift how you think about inclusion together.

Ahmet: 1:04

Exclusion looks like not an exclusion and that's the worst one. Exclusion is microaggression. It's between the lines. It's a look. It's an attitude. It's an eye movement. It's don't worry, I'll have that. Don't worry, I'll do that for you. It's those kind of sentences. You know, it's being pushed out. It's not being able to go through the gate that you're supposed to pass. And this happened to me

Beatrice: 1:30

Let's get this conversation going with Ame on today's episode of Venturing into Fashion Tech. Hello listeners, we're back for another session and today we have Ame Eminhondor in a room. Did I say that correctly, Ame?

Ahmet: 1:45

That's perfect, actually.

Beatrice: 1:47

Amazing. Just for our listeners, do you want to give us a brief intro to who you are and we'll just kick off with some other questions.

Ahmet: 1:54

Yes, of course. Lovely to be here today, Beatrice. Thank you. My name is Ahmet and in Turkish Ahmet, the H is usually a little bit silent. So that's a common mistake, but you said it perfectly. So I'm Ahmet. I work currently at British Fashion Council looking after partnerships and new business. And I've been doing this for a while now in different organizations, one of which is also Pride in London, where I also look after fashion partnerships. And in the past, I've been doing it with a smaller scale, with more emerging businesses. I've been in the fashion industry for about almost 15 years now. That makes me feel old. I got a chance to work in a lot of different... different parts of the fashion industry. So I started my career as a stylist in magazines. I was a menswear stylist and a fashion editor. And then I started working with young designers, supporting their brands in PR and events. And then, yeah, since then, it evolved into partnerships at the end. But I got a chance to be involved in different aspects of the businesses, which I'm really happy about. I think it gave me a lot of perspective on especially what designer businesses need or how they do things. And yeah, I find that quite like an important asset that I have in That's

Beatrice: 3:23

really amazing. I didn't know you were a stylist before, so I'm going to kind of pin on that. We're going to circle back to it, right? I'd love for you to explore further the work that you've done because you've worked really at the intersection of culture, commerce, and also creativity. So how have you seen the role of brand partnerships evolve to better represent founders from the global ethnic majority in the UK fashion ecosystem

Ahmet: 3:54

it's changing it is a progress especially like post 2020 i think there's been people started people started to look at things differently i'm not saying the progress is even it's not it's it's it's an uneven progress there are businesses that are very careful about this there are businesses that are more conscious to hear about everyone's voices but there was a businesses that are doing it just to just to tick a box yeah And that is something we all need to tackle in our personal lives. But from my overall perspective, I think that it's definitely, I see a positive change. And I think the key here is identifying the tokenism and not necessarily cancel that, if that's the word, but maybe try to be involved in that. How can I make an impact there? Or how can I start the impact from my small world and then maybe trigger that change in a bigger perspective? That's how I always look at things. And from my experience, what I've seen is when we're creating partnerships, when we give the platform or the spotlight the business that needs the spotlight it's so important to listen to them and give them to share their perspective completely objectively rather than making it into an ingenuine marketing activation or like some sort of overall strategy just try to fit them in rather than just just play into the authenticity of what they have to offer. And then that's where the authentic change is. And I think more and more people, especially with brands that are working with emerging designers, I see that change and I'm quite hopeful.

Beatrice: 5:44

Coming back then to you working as a stylist in your previous life, how then did representation come across to you when you were on these styling jobs, particularly when it when it was your time to select the garments and the brands that you wanted to work with?

Ahmet: 6:03

I think my styling experience was more... It was more than 10 years ago. And even then, I think back then, the things were quite different. And when I look back now, I was also trying to fit a box. I was trying to tone myself down, try to understand... what the brief is from the brand and try to satisfy them. But when I look back after all of this experience and all of this in my pocket, I think when I look back, I would have done it differently because I really believe the education is key. And I really believe in we should all almost like assert our input that we especially should. There's a value there. And when I look back now that I don't think I showed that value enough because we all, especially when I'm younger, I think we all desperately want to fit in a box. And as a queer Turkish guy, I was desperate to be like others, to fit in that box. And I think Kate didn't let me be my authentic self. And I think it definitely affects the output there as well. And it's a shame because now, when I look back, I can't comment on how that would have been received. My sense back then was that it wouldn't be received well. I need to be like them. I need to satisfy them rather than satisfy my inner creativity. But maybe I haven't done it. Maybe if I had done it, it would have been successful or they would have liked it. So there's no answer there because maybe I was too scared to do

Beatrice: 7:43

it. I can definitely resonate with that. Thank you so much for being really open and truthful because I feel like as the majority, we tend to also be ashamed of how we've been conditioned to fit into a box not not by choice really really on survival right and having my own fashion brand and really pivoting towards really celebrating my culture either to the detriment or hopefully future positive outlook for where I want my brand to go I can really resonate with what you're saying because even now let's say my choice of using black models because that's what I identify with but it doesn't mean necessarily that my audience is just black but really how is that being perceived on a global scale for all types of let's say women if I'm doing women's work And really, I think us trying to, as we have seen whiteness on the global scale do mean for everybody, could blackness represent, you know, a similar ideology. And I'd like to kind of pivot back then based on culture and representation. If you could give us a bit more about your Turkish background and maybe what you've learnt there. in the past, how is your culture and Turkish influence influencing the current work you're doing?

Ahmet: 9:01

I feel so privileged to be Turkish, living in the Western world, especially in such an exciting city like London. It's because it gives me perspective on a lot of things in a different way. So Turkish culture, it's a Mediterranean culture. So we relax, we like to chat, we live in communities. it's so important the bonds the sharing everyone's so passionate everyone's so together all the time and when I first moved to London it was more about like individuals everyone's like the people have a lot of boundaries which I really respect people like to live individually I think it just creates a difference it takes a while to adapt to that and that is the same in professional life if you ask me because in Turkey when things change could be done more, maybe quickly, more like less thorough backgrounds. or just research. Whereas in here, I see the opposite of it. But so where I'm at in this time of my life, I see that I can balance those two things. At least I've tried to get the best of both worlds, both of practicality, but also doing things thoroughly and just going into deep understanding of things. And that goes from my professional life to all the way to my social life. And I learned more boundaries in here. And then just that helps me better. and protect my own self in social situations. Turkey has always inspired me a lot because it's such an intersection of Western and Eastern world. If you go to the West, it's a Mediterranean country. It's very much like a European mindset and culture. If you go to East, it's more Middle Eastern. The culture is different. It's very unique. The art is different. The fashion is different. And the beauty of it is the harmony. So I think Turkey as a land has... hosted so many different civilizations over the over the history and i think they all left a mark on those lands so i feel like as turkish people we get to basically have that if we get we get the chance to be exposed to that maybe we've grown with that so yeah a lot of different principles of art and creativity existed around us since I can remember. I

Beatrice: 11:35

love that. I love Turkish culture as well. My mother-in-law loves watching Teddy Novella and she's in Sicily. I

Ahmet: 11:42

love them. It's

Beatrice: 11:44

great. Yes, they are. Beautiful scenery as well. I must visit sometime. I love the word community and how that's really shaped your intellect. and who you are with people. And I think it's really important that we adopt our own selves in culture and how that really makes us unique and have a representation of different skills that supports the wider ecosystem of the work that we do, particularly in fashion, right? So when we do talk about representation and understanding that that's one thing, but equity is also another. So what does meaningful inclusion look like? to you when it comes to brand partnerships and business development in fashion

Ahmet: 12:29

I think meaningful inclusion versus I don't know how to say like a surface kind of like representation is really important distinction that we should all be aware of we should look into things when we are exposed to them and because your presentation is important and it is about being seen it is about being there it's about being in the room it's about being getting a mention and the credit yes and that is very important but we can always take that further we can always turn it into the inclusion side of things, which is about more than being seen, but also being heard, also being given the stage, also being empowered, also having a longer term impact of that in your life, maybe changing your path in any way. So we can always do more and we should never tick that box and move on, especially if you're in the position of power of in the position of privilege i think i've seen real change when underrepresented communities have given the chance to to express themselves but also they've been trusted at like strategic voices in that project because their perspective is needed there because their perspective is going to add to that but to to actually create a meaningful change in their lives so then that can lead into empowerment longer term inclusion changing their paths maybe triggering further change of policies and capital. And it's just like, because these things are a chain effect. And I really believe that there is no small action that can be taken. So meaningful inclusion is a very, very strong start to go further in this journey.

Beatrice: 14:18

And we've just celebrated Pride Month at the So sort of going back to what you just said in reflection, do you feel like that type of inclusivity in that moment is moving beyond just a day in a month for a month in itself and really supporting how we understand inclusion more widely?

Ahmet: 14:40

This is a very tricky thing because in my volunteer work at Pride in London, this is always the message we try to communicate to the corporate companies that come in to invest in Pride. What are you doing beyond this? Do you have representation in your business? Statistically, where do we sit at? Where do LGBTQ plus community sit in your organization? Is the representation there? If it's there, is it in the senior staff as well? Or is it more in the junior staff? These are very important metrics to analyze situations. Unfortunately, to be very brutally honest, this year we saw a major, major downwards shift in investment and basically based on all of our outreach across all categories, because of the overall global narrative that's been going on against trans community, especially. So that affected things a lot. And that almost filtered the businesses that were doing it for the wrong reasons. So now, yes, we do have less brands. It was more challenging to get investment to do Pride this year, but we're very appreciative for the businesses that are still being involved, still doing the work that needs to be done because now we know that they're genuine. And going back to what I said in the beginning, it's not about... cancelling these businesses when they don't do it or when they do it for the wrong reason. At Pride, what we try to do is that how can we take that further? Can we provide you a year-long EDI training? We can help you to be a better representation in the business. I think it's about being constructive, finding solutions and not writing things off. There is a lot of challenges a lot of blockages when it comes to especially big corporations multinational corporations but you don't ask you don't get we always ask we always try to push it

Beatrice: 16:58

You can't really have representation without equity and also vice versa, because if you don't have the people representing at the top, the way equity can't really be built in a more meaningful way. Sort of swiveling back to challenges, because I feel like that's always going to be a challenge when we talk about DEI, let's face it, is what does exclusion look like? We talk about inclusion, but actually what does exclusion look like?

Ahmet: 17:22

I think exclusion looks like not an exclusion, and that's the worst one. Exclusion is microaggression to me. It's the... It's between the lines. It's a look. It's an attitude. It's an eye movement. It's a... Don't worry, I'll have that. Don't worry, I'll do that for you. It's those kind of sentences. It's being pushed out. It's not being able to go through the gate that you're supposed to pass. And this happened to me a lot in my personal life. I'm not going to lie. It's... I am considering myself lucky in the sense that these kind of like micro-exclusions are very, yes, damaging and it affects your mental health. But there is also obviously a further one. There's also diverse examples. So I'm always aware of my privilege in that sense. And I'm trying to do my best from my own perspective. But it would still... be alive I say that they don't affect me and my mental health on a daily basis and when I first changed countries and I did that twice I lived in Sweden for a while and then I went back to Turkey and then I came to the UK in my life and every time you change your country you are the not dominant culture in there. You need to adapt, which I really respect. I always try to learn as much as I can about the culture, about the people, the arts, the creativity, the industries. But then you also expect to be given the spotlight a little bit because you at least expect an acknowledgement that you are making a lot of effort to be there, to adapt to the to do your things their way. And that acknowledgement, not from coming from always for a bad malicious intent, but it's sometimes like just be ignorant that you are not one of them. And as I got older, I learned now to ask for that spotlight. I tend to not hold myself back anymore. So exclusion, those kinds of exclusions, when they come my way, it's just as simple as that sometimes just to raise a hand saying that this is my perspective. I think this should be heard. It could be a no, but this is what I think. And if I don't say this, if I don't share this, why am I sitting on this chair? But yeah, I think we can push those boundaries.

Beatrice: 20:03

Yeah, absolutely. You know, when you do talk about exclusion, I'm really... understanding and quite sensitive to as we grow globally as well. There are many diverse mixes of heritage, culture and of people. I think that identity also tends to get mixed in as inclusivity or exclusion to you will probably be very different from inclusivity and exclusion to me because it's very present on my skin. Whereas for you, if I'm all right to say, not necessarily, but then you experience it from a very different perspective, even though even with Turkish culture, it's still, I would say, within a certain minority or majority and you go for your exclusion there. Adding, I guess, the fact that you're gay as well. So maybe just for our audience, could you maybe stipulate that? How do you feel excluded and where does that really come from?

Ahmet: 20:57

Why exclusion have always felt... more on the cultural side because in Europe, it's actually different. In Turkey, I'm excluded for different reasons. In London, I'm excluded for different reasons. When I look back to Turkey, it's not the most queer-friendly space. Unfortunately, it used to be better, but unfortunately, it's not looking great at the moment. And I do feel more self-conscious every time I go back to Turkey now. I do feel more self-aware when I'm with my partner and just sharing that holiday with him. and it's changing and the exclusion there is when especially when doing business it's like I said in the beginning of my career like how I've done there it's the expectation is for you to match them and there is not there's not a lot of room for your unique perspective especially when it comes to playing with gender a bit more fluidity and your unique perspective as a queer person that's not very valued and that's not necessarily welcome a lot as in in business perspective you expect to act a certain way And you can easily be eliminated if you're pitching an idea or if you are applying for a job, you can easily lose that if you don't act a certain way, which is very, very sad. Whereas if I talk about my exclusion experience in the UK, I would say it's more cultural than my queerness. There is a certain, unfortunately, a stereotype for Turkish people I wasn't really aware of that before I started living here. And it wasn't necessarily negative, but even the fact that every time I meet someone and I say that I'm Turkish, they're like, oh, you don't look like Turkish. You don't act like Turkish. You're not like a Turkish person. It's just that I know I'm aware that's not coming from a bad place. But that is also not a fair statement to make because I am Turkish. I'm proud that I'm Turkish and I can be Turkish like this. And the way I look, what I do in life and everyone should be proud of their culture, the way they are, not necessarily the stereotypes. I think we're at that stage that they need to be broken now. Would you mind

Beatrice: 23:30

explaining what

Ahmet: 23:31

that is? No, I think that that comes from the migration movement from back in the decades ago. It's statistically the number of Turkish people that moved to the UK. They came from a different sociological perspective and they've been living here for decades. There are certain neighbourhoods that are more Turkish people. They're very Turkish dominant. I think people... don't expect you to be like necessarily, I don't know, a queer person working in fashion. And I don't know, like just, you know, like that kind of a certain look people, it doesn't come to people's minds that like this person can be Turkish. They expect another type of look and that's not me.

Beatrice: 24:21

Thank you so much. First of all, just take a moment for sharing that. And it's always really nice to get a different perspective. And I really appreciate you delving a bit more deeper. And somewhere in your responses, you talked about mental health or mental well-being. And I wonder if you can also talk to the audience about how do you manage your own mental body and care in very toxic environments?

Ahmet: 24:48

I think it's so important. to do anything, something for that. We all need to take care of our mental health and the more we don't feel the feelings that we're supposed to feel, the more we try to press those feelings, it just comes off in other ways. So I do see a lot of value in expression. expressing your feelings this could look like just sitting in your room when you go back home and if you're frustrated with something just sitting in your room with that frustration feel it go deep in it and then just just you know basically process that emotion regulate yourself and come back it could be as simple as that like a little 10 minute meditation on that feeling but it could also be having a support mechanism around you with your friends or a therapist or a partner or family just just having a safe space where you can share and express your feelings I think with my experience I see the British culture people don't tend to open up easily and that could be my Turkish background where we share a lot and we sometimes overshare quite often with our friends but I think I see whenever I see someone that I feel like struggling I tend to Even if it's a small coffee or tea in the office or whatever, I tend to invite them to basically let them know that I'm a safe space that I can share. with me so yeah for me i would say sharing meditating i'm a fan of kundalini yoga but it's not for everyone looking to find your own thing try other things but do something to to feel those feelings to express those emotions

Beatrice: 26:40

and i guess find the right people or community if you want to be able to sit down and in a way sometimes address that sometimes talking you know helps and supports right so i can definitely get that again thank you so much for sharing. I guess sort of shriveling back or bringing it back down to a bit more positive note, right? So maybe can you show the example of a campaign partnership of founder you've worked with, Wadmanit, who has truly shifted the narrative in British fashion?

Ahmet: 27:11

There's so many. Because I think shifting the narrative is, it's a very... subjective thing because i think a lot of designers in their own ways they shift their narrative within their communities they make a huge difference and the communities they represent they are their heroes it could be a massive scale it could be as big as a neighborhood sometimes the best thing i love about my job is to see those kind of impacts on especially emerging designer brands. I think within my career, I got a chance to be involved with very small, new starting businesses where we created accelerator programs to give the kind of support they need from marketing to finance, to design, to product, to sourcing and seeing that and then how much difference it gives them at the end of those XRAT programs and a little networking session that you create for them. It's just like how much they get out of it to be seen in that room. It's always a very proud moment. I also get a privilege to see these kind of like more bigger businesses that are global, that are super influential. The stuff they do is being followed by millions of people. So it's just like, Seeing that and how they use their voice, how they use their backgrounds to make that change. It's so, so beautiful. I can give you an example from an event that we've done recently, a few months ago. Every year we do some sort of impact announcements. So basically the charity side of BFC and the kind of where that support goes. And then there's an announcement event at press basically where we announce the new gen designers and the initiatives and the funding receivers and all of that. And it's a beautiful event. And this year, our lovely designer team created a showcase just to basically for the guests to enter first. before they get to the staging area where we have the speeches so you go in and then you see the designers that are recently joined the BFC network either through college funds and they're just basically very very young businesses and then as you go through you move on to the designers that receive our fundings, like World Funds or GQ Funds, and then you move forward and then you see some of the designers that's been part of the initiatives that we have. And then you move on and then you start seeing the new gen designers that's been in the new gen program. And then as you go, you see more established designers that are basically graduated from new gen and become more globally influential business. So this is like almost like a journey that designers can go through when they join these kind of networks not necessarily BFC but like this could be this could be but that basically copy and paste it to any other industry or any other business model where you can see the importance of support and you can see the importance of being a part of a community where you can receive

Beatrice: 30:25

support so the BFC for our audience that's the British Fashion Council what advice would you give to emerging global ethnic majority founders looking to build powerful brand partnerships in an industry that's historically been difficult to access.

Ahmet: 30:40

Yes, advice. I would say don't wait for permission. and just push for that spotlight, ask for that mic. I think that's the most important thing that in my personal experience, yes, not everyone can be ready from day one, but at least be mindful that that's what you should do and what you get there. And because I think the most important thing that we should all remember is that our cultural perspective is important. And I say this very, very confidently now at my age, in my career. Your cultural perspective is a business asset. If it's your own business, it's important for you. If you're working for a company, it's important for them. They might not know it yet, but you're responsible for educating them. And your cultural perspective is important. You should always, always share that with the world.

Beatrice: 31:38

Amazing. Thank you. I really love that. Luke Fireland, are you ready? Yes, I am. So what's the most underrated skill a founder should develop when breaking into fashion?

Ahmet: 31:50

The boring ones. So I think the business skills, negotiation, pricing, accounting. These are quite underrated in my experience, especially with small designer businesses. So yeah, make sure you get support on these skills if you're not so confident yourself.

Beatrice: 32:08

Thank you. Love that, Ms. Wong. name one emerging designer or brand that excites you right now?

Ahmet: 32:13

Martin Rose I'm a huge fan huge fan yeah there's and I think the references the subcultures and she really understands subcultures she really uses her background and ethnicity the most beautiful way possible. And I think there is a really long and exciting way that we're going to see Martin Rose. It's just, yeah, I'm very, very excited about her brand.

Beatrice: 32:43

In three words, what should a great brand partnership feel?

Ahmet: 32:47

Transformative, collaborative and exciting.

Beatrice: 32:50

Love it. If you could change one thing overnight in the UK fashion industry, what would it be? Can I change Brexit? You know what? Why not? Because, yeah.

Ahmet: 33:02

Let's change Brexit. I think that is a really good start.

Beatrice: 33:05

I love that. Last question. What's one book, podcast or film that shaped how you think about inclusion or creativity?

Ahmet: 33:15

There's actually a beautiful film I've seen recently on Mubi. It's called A Crossing. And I recommend everyone to see that film. It's by Levan Akın. He's a Swedish director with Turkish and Georgian roots. It's a beautiful film about a Georgian, like an older woman with a younger guy crossing the bridge from Georgia to Turkey. It touches on the trans community in Istanbul. It touches on the immigration difficulties and issues. It touches on the importance of community. It really, really touched me. And I think anyone who watches that will feel the importance of community and maybe will feel a bit more compassion for all the people. the refugees and the...

Beatrice: 34:09

Amazing. Well, that's on my list now. So thank you. It's been such a pleasure talking with you today and for you highlighting the importance of inclusivity in what you do, community culture, and just that wonderful Turkish vibe that I miss it.

Ahmet: 34:27

Thank you so much, Beatrice.