On September 21st, Fashion Fiesta returns for its third year to host one of the most successful fashion shows known to Bradford. The show will be raising money for it’s partnered charity: One In A Million. OIAM is a Bradford-based charity, co-founded by Wayne Jacobs, formerly a professional footballer at Bradford City. The charity provides access to sports, arts and enterprise facilities, predominantly to disadvantaged children and young people in Bradford and the surrounding areas. Organisers of the fashion show are hoping to smash their target of the £1000 raised last year.
The theme of the fashion show is a battle of the catwalk for independent fashion houses, makeup artists and models. In each category prizes are business-support related, to help these ambitious business owners to develop and grow their brand into a well established business within the industry.
The show will be hosted in the beautiful and picturesque location of the Midland Hotel, Bradford. Founder and organiser of the show, Rachel Hatfield explained that the ethos of the show is one that focuses on: “Community, sharing and collaboration. It is not a singular person or organisation that benefits from this show; rather everyone who takes part finds that they will benefit hugely. The show is a competition for entrepreneurial fashion designers, makeup artists and models to compete in three separate heats. The prizes for each heat are donated by local businesses and aspiring business leaders. This is just one example of how the show is a collaborative effort from many individuals in the local community, not just myself and the team.”
The show will enable entrants a creative license to showcase their talents and abilities to a selective panel of Yorkshire business leaders. The panel will include some of the industry’s most prominent business leaders: Angela Riches, Editor of H&N magazine, Stacey Irving, Managing Director of Global Cosmetics Development and Sofia Spencer, Owner of Sofia Models Management. Accompanying them are successful entrepreneurs and some of Yorkshire’s finest business gurus: Sarah Tulip, Chief Operating Officer of AQL, Victoria Wainwright, Managing Director of Naylor Wintersgill, Wayne Jacobs, Co-Founder of One In A Million and Chris Allan, Managing Partner of Blacks Solicitors.
In Fashion Fiesta’s inaugural year, Victoria Reddington, founder of Isaac Ava won the show, before going on to showcase her collections at New York Fashion Week. Victoria’s collection, ‘Blue Lights’ was built around a palette of blue, white, black and grey and was directly inspired by J. M. W. Turner’s ‘Rockets and Blue Lights’. The designs echoed the sea and sky from the Turner poem from which they were inspired. Competing against Victoria was By Betty by Beth Hughes who showcased her some of her collection ‘Wuthering Heights’, a series of hats that had been inspired by the colours, shapes and textures of the Yorkshire Moors.
In its early stages the show quickly gained traction, growing its audience from just 50 captivated members in an intimate location, into central Bradford, gaining sponsorship from the Midland Hotel allowing audience size to double. The show moved from raising money for community projects in Manningham, to growing its scope for fundraising by supporting One In A Million and thus branching out the support reach of the donations into additional communities at a grassroot level.
In 2016, fashion designer Darecca Stainforth, graduate of Leeds College of Art and founder of fashion house DazaRockz, won over the panel with her collection that embodied her ‘urban vibe teamed with an individual flare’. Her inspiring use of a monochrome palette captured the attention of the judges and ultimately won her 3 months worth of business coaching. The competition was fierce, a close second place was awarded to Natalie Onoita, recent graduate of Bradford School of Arts and Media. Natalie’s collection had a historical twist as she took her inspiration from Henry VII’s six wives: her creative take on traditional Tudor style cemented her place in the top 3, and she took home a photoshoot from professional photographer Alan Carmichael. Third place was awarded to Marie Stenton, who received Social Media training allowing her to grow her online presence effectively. After graduating from Leeds University and winning the Clothworkers award for best print design, Marie brought her collection of loose fit, silk chiffon dresses and crepe kimonos to the show.
This year, as a result of growth and increased sponsorship due to previous years’ success, the show is expanding its capacity to increase publicity for local creatives by opening out the competition into two new strains: encouraging Makeup Artists and Models to showcase their artistry and compete for maximum exposure to relevant industry gurus. By introducing two new categories into the competition, Fashion Fiesta allows the competition to become even more diverse, innovative and maintains a larger level of exposure to relevant business owners. The new competitions will additionally enable both models and makeup artists to grow and develop their businesses, as prizes will again be business development inspired. All entrants to the show will also benefit from social media exposure as Fashion Fiesta promotes all of its entrants through their social media pages to their loyal followers.
The show is actively encouraging aspiring fashion designers to compete and battle it out for the first prize of 3 months of invaluable Business Coaching. Second place will see designers win a photo shoot of their collection, with Capricorn Photography, and third place will be granted Social Media training from Shoo Social Media’s founder.
Makeup artists will also find themselves competing for the first prize of a professional marketing Video to use for their self-promotion, donated by Sync Media. Second prize is again a photoshoot, this time donated by Charles Waller, and third is professional and reliable hosting for the makeup artist’s website.
Models are also encouraged to apply for Fashion Fiesta, as the first prize for amateur models is a modelling contract with Sofia Models Management. Each model that takes part will also receive a photo shoot on the evening in which Alan Carmichael who will provide them with stunning headshots, guaranteed to be a valued addition to their portfolios.
This year promises to be Fashion Fiestas biggest show yet: the catwalk will be bigger, the competition larger and the prizes even more coveted. The evening event will include entertainment in the form of specifically choreographed dance, music from local bands, a DJ booth, a blind auction, copious raffle prizes to be won and of course, the catwalk competitions.
To purchase tickets for the event visit www.fashionfiesta.co.uk and to enquire about sponsorship opportunities, raffle donations, or even to enquire about contributing your time to the show please contact the organising committee on fashionfiesta@shoosocialmedia.co.uk or call 01943 430245.
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