Brighton Fashion Week, the south coast’s annual celebration of fashion, will return to the city this weekend (15-17 October). Get ready for a series of catwalk shows, workshops, debates and industry networking that will explore the very best of ethical, sustainable fashion.
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For the first time since its launch in 2009, Brighton Fashion Week will be completely sustainable. All of the show’s participating designers are using ethical practices in their production process and will be asked to make a pledge towards sustainability.
This year’s catwalks and workshops have been curated with the help of leading organisations working to create a more ethical, affordable and creative fashion industry.
Participating organisations include Fashion Revolution, Love Your Clothes, Ethical Fashion Forum and Novel Beings, the P.E.A. Award-shortlisted artist agency that exclusively represents conscious creatives in fashion, beauty, advertising and music.
‘In the six years since its inception, Brighton Fashion Week has become an international fashion and art platform and 2015 is looking to be our most exciting year yet. Making our events sustainable is a challenge that reflects our reputation for shaking-up the fashion mainstream.
‘A number of renowned environmental organisations – including WRAP, Ethical Fashion Forum and Veolia – are helping us to develop our programme of events. It will be a great opportunity to unite the fashion industry and the local Brighton community, changing perceptions about fashion and creating awareness.’
Liz Bishop, founder and director of Brighton Fashion Week
Among this year’s highlights is the Love Your Clothes ‘Fashion Salvage’: a tonne of discarded clothes will be deposited at the Open Market, and a series of events and workshops will showcase the benefits of secondhand and upcycled clothes as well as highlighting the environmental issues of clothing waste.
Places on workshops can be booked online here.
A group of upcyclers, designers, artists and fashion businesses, led by resource efficiency experts WRAP, will be working across three days to create new pieces out of unwanted clothes. These creations will be made using one tonne of secondhand garments donated by Cancer Research UK.
Brighton Fashion Week has invited local schools, fashion students and community members to get involved in this upcycling event, making eco-fashion accessible to all.
Other events include a series of groundbreaking fashion shows, featuring the works of national and international designers at All Saints Church in Hove.
Showreel, a showstopping combination of fashion and art, will introduce us to the Zeitgeist Fashion Show – which sees the return of Catherine Hudson with her brand Leif Erikkson – and the Sustain Catwalk Show, which will showcase new environmentally conscious fashion from the likes of award-winning Kitty Ferreira and Rhiannon Hunt.
‘To meet the needs of the 7.2 billion people on Earth, we need to address the biggest single issue our planet faces: lack of resources. We already have much of the technology we need to recycle, recover and reuse precious resources.
‘Supporting emerging designers on their mission to design in a viable way and highlighting sustainable fashion at the Brighton Fashion Week. BFW is a great place to start a shift in public attitudes.’
Veolia, a key partner of Brighton Fashion Week
Click here for more information about BFW 2015, including ticket sales and schedule.
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