This year at Brighton Fashion Week we saw the introduction of the Sustain show, an event created to showcase ethically minded design. Designs were created using both sustainable and up-cycled materials - and wow, what a show it was!
The show took place in the stunning St Bartholomew's church. As I entered through the grand entrance of the church I was immediately in awe at the beauty of the location. The church had all the classic signature pieces that make old churches so calming, including the old stone pillars, high ceilings and pipes on display from the organ. This church had however, also been transformed into a gorgeous fashion location.
At the end of the church, just in front of the altar, was a huge display with the raised catwalk running immediately down the middle of the church. Around the sidewalls of the church were lights and sound systems neatly placed so as not disturb the feeling that we were in a beautiful environment. I really liked the way the altar and church chairs had been placed neatly along the catwalk to provide us with seating for the event.
It did occur to me, that every girl dreams of walking from the altar through the church wearing the most beautiful dress and I found it kind of ironic that the models would be doing just that tonight, albeit for a different purpose.
As we took our seat I began to wonder about the experience I was about to witness. Okay, so I knew it was a show about suitability but I honestly had no genuine concept of what that truly meant.
The lights dimmed and the show started and one after another the models came down the catwalk.
The first collection was from Rebecca Jane Taylor and her Gore-tex up-cycle collection. The collection was amazingly vibrant and very creative; I especially loved the hats and headgear. The collection was certainly a brilliant opener to the show.
Following Rebecca was Samantha-Jane Agbontaen for Fabryan London. This was one of my favorite collections of the night and certainly a collection I would be happy to wear. The clean lines and fantastic use of materials provided a utterly stunning collection.
Dumpster were up shortly after Fabryan and as soon as I saw the first model I knew we were in for something really special. The designer, Daisy made wonderful use of items we throw away every day including newspapers, leaflets and gift bags. The designs combined these paper products with more conventional materials to create awesome statement pieces.
Anna Bykova provided the biggest surprise of the evening for me. The model wearing a white shirt with what appeared to be a hood walked down the catwalk, did the usual poses but remained posing for much longer than usual. I think its fair to say that most people were wondering why the model was posing for so long. The second model started down the catwalk but the first model was still posing. I was starting to get a little worried that something was wrong with the first model until the second model walked up behind the first model and removed what I thought was a hood to reveal a stunning waist coat. Brilliant!
My favorite collection from the night has to be Henrietta Ludgate. The collection was made up of designs that were all instantly wearable. The collection included a number of beautiful dresses utilising various materials and design ideas plus an amazing green padded coat.
All-in-all, ten designers showed their collections on the night, each one was impressive in their own right.
The key point of the collections was to highlight what's achievable using sustainable materials but to be honest I was so impressed by the designs on show, I totally forgot that the products were even made from sustainable materials. I guess this single point alone proves sustainability in fashion is more easily achievable than some might think!
In all of the collections on show there were a lot of designs I would be very happy to wear. The fact that the materials were all sustainable and/or up-cycled made the designs even more appealing. If the high street provided more sustainable collections as impressive as those shown at Brighton Fashion Week, I would be first in line to make a purchase.
Zoe.
All photos and videos used in this post are Copyright 2013 LittleMissFashion.com. Full set of photos from the evening are available here http://www.flickr.com/photos/zjyates/sets/