Made Not Manufactured

 

This was one of the posters towards the end of 2010 at the Origins craft fair in Spitalfields Market. It made me smile, and I love the label 'Made Not Manufactured'. Appreciation of materials, skills, quality and craftmanship are implied through the 'made'.

Kilburn OxJam: Fashion Show

Oxfam's music and fashion fundraiser, OxJam, organise events throughout the country, and on Friday 8th October I submitted an upcycled outfit to be shown as part of the fashion show.

The design brief was to select garments from an Oxfam store (spending a maximum of £15) and upcycle them into a fabulous outfit to be shown at the OxJam event.  I visited the Camden Oxfam DIY store and, inspired by the promotion of pink products from Wednesday's Breast Cancer Care Show, I selected a pink outfit: Leggings (Diesel) and Hoody (H&M) to create my October Breast Cancer Awareness upcycled outfit.

I deconstructed the hoody and leggings and used design features of both garments to inspire the upcycle outfit. I used the zip and the ribbing from the hoody in the dress and turned the hood inside out before reattaching it to the jacket. Modelled here by the lovely Georgia who did a great job at making it look even better than I had imagined on the catwalk!

As well as the fashion show, music was performed by Hawa Power and I Love Zagreb - both talented acts that provided a great accompaniment to the fashion show. Also showing an outfit at the OxJam show: Francesca Warren (whose garment is the black dress above) who is a graduate from the CSM Textile Futures MA. Her work and new label UnButton focuses on reuse and zero waste and you can find more information about her great ideas  HERE!

OCTOBER - Breast Cancer Care Awareness Month

It was a very emotional but also exciting day on Wednesday 6th October - photographing the models backstage at the annual Breast Cancer Care fundraising event at Grovesnor House Hotel. The models are all breast cancer survivors and had a great day modelling fabulous outfits on the catwalk to raise money for a great and essential cause. The best photographs were taken on the big fancy camera and are now in the good hands of Breast Cancer Care, but I also managed to snap away on the blog camera!

The models arrived early at Grovesnor House and were treated to a full hair and make up makeover. There were 20 models all together, so it took most of the morning to get everyone through the fantastic Estee Lauder make up artists and Sassoon hair team. These photos are taken backstage at the dress rehersal and afternoon BCC Show.

 All the outfits had been decided proir to the event, and the models were comfortable  in their selection and also looked AMAZING! Clothes had been donated by everyone from John Lewis to Jaeger, and were split into eight themes.

My favourite of all themes: the Evening Ballgown collection - each model wore a stunning evening gown and for this outfit only was walked down the catwalk by a professional male model.

The fundraiser was a huge success and I greatly enjoyed getting to know the models and being able to capture the excitement and glamour of the day.

For more information on Breast Cancer Care click here

Timberland - Nature needs Heroes