There’s nothing more glamorous than a perfectly coiffed, gorgeously made up model in a stunning gown, moving gracefully along a catwalk. Well, if you’re sitting in the audience at a fashion show, that is. Behind the scenes, things look more like how “chaos” would be represented in a picture dictionary.
Models running around in varying states of undress, assistants getting hot and bothered over piles of ironing and one person tearing out her hair as she mends broken zips with safety pins while simultaneously lining up the models for a dress rehearsal, being interviewed for a TV network and attaching double-sided tape to overly-blousy blouses to prevent indecent exposure.
That “one person”? At this particular fashion show, it was me. Last Friday night I ran the Fair Fashion show, and I’m still recovering. You probably won’t believe it, but it takes months to put together a 20-minute catwalk show! And as it was the launch event for the Fair@Square festival, sponsored by City Weekly, which celebrates Fair Trade, sustainable and ethical business, there was no massive conglomerate coughing up millions for a team to market their brand. Instead, the show was run on a shoestring by a little team which numbered one – myself.
Despite the amount of work and stress involved, running an entire fashion show by yourself has its good points – the main one being that I got to choose all the designers involved. Of course, given the festival’s theme, the designers had to fit the sustainable, ethical brief. Now, I know there are still some people out there who think eco fashion is as exciting as an old teabag (a Fair Trade one which has been used to dye a pair of organic hemp fisherman’s pants, maybe?). But there are a lot of labels producing fantastic fashion that doesn’t cost the earth, and that’s what I wanted the audience to see.
Roopa Pemmaraju and Bachhara both employ workers under Fair Trade conditions to produce beautiful, billowy maxi-dresses that are perfect for long days by the beach. Then there are the upcyclers – labels like Urbandon, 3rd Time and PaulineLoui whose garments are all created from second-hand finds (army tents, painter’s draping cloths and awful ’80s frocks included). Accessories shouldn’t be forgotten either – handmade crochet neckpieces from HandHookYarn, mini fish-shaped soy sauce bottles used as beads in a necklace by Mainichi, and handcrafted sculptural pendants in recycled laminate from Elgar & Lyle were among the pieces that finished off the outfits.
While I wouldn’t advise you to run your own fashion show, you can still do a bit of good next time you shop for a new addition to your wardrobe. Find links for the labels which appeared in the Fair Fashion show here, try out this new innovation or get on Google to see how you can be sustainable without sacrificing style - or your sanity.
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