NEWS
EVENTS
Alternative Fashion Week 2012
Thursday 29th March 2012 | Osh
ALTERNATIVE FASHION WEEK 2012
presented by Alternative Arts
16 – 21* APRIL 2012
Spitalfields Traders Market, Crispin Place, Brushfield St, London E1 6AA
(Liverpool St Station)
ALTERNATIVE ARTS presents East London’s major fashion event – Alternative Fashion Week. From April 16th to 21st Spitalfields will play host to the most original and creative collections by a fresh crop of new designers with truly innovative ideas.
ALTERNATIVE FASHION WEEK is where all the best new designers are to be discovered. It provides a genuine alternative for them to present their work directly to the press, public and the fashion industry. Designers come from all over the UK and other parts of the world including Italy, Spain, Norway, Poland, Bulgaria, Uruguay and Sri Lanka.
OVER EIGHTY DESIGNERS have been selected to show their work. Hundreds of applications were received from independent designers aiming to establish their labels to recent fashion and textile graduates. Expect anything from elegant to edgy.
FOURTEEN different designers will show each day. Original and recycled textiles are a major feature. There’ll be women’s and men’s wear from the sublime to the sensational with an emphasis on environmental awareness and ethical sourcing.
STUNNING NEW MODELS will be taking to the catwalk with many arriving hot from the special model training course run for six weeks prior to the Week.
FASHION SHOWS will be open to the press and public daily at 1.15pm accompanied by ‘The Mannequins’ - a live contemporary Jazz band.
THE FASHION MARKET that surrounds the catwalk from 11am to 5pm each day is a shopping sensation with stalls selling an exotic range of clothes, textiles and accessories.
*STOP PRESS: ALTERNATIVE FASHION WEEK EXTRA
Due to overwhelming popular demand AFW 2012 is being extended to Saturday 21 April to include original designers currently trading regularly in the Spitalfields Traders Market. All designs may be purchased as they come off the catwalk!
ALTERNATIVE ARTS is a publicly funded arts organisation presenting fashion as an exciting and original art form and supporting fresh talent by producing and directing AFW at no charge to the designers.
ADMISSION IS FREE to this event and includes a programme listing every designer.
PRESS AND BUYERS are invited to reserve front row seats at each fashion show by email/ phone. Special spaces will be allocated for photographers, film crews and wheelchair users.
For further information and images contact:
ALTERNATIVE ARTS 020 7375 0441 info@alternativearts.co.uk
Supported by Spitalfields Estate, Haagen-Dazs, YELP and Alternative Arts
THE ALTERNATIVE FASHION WEEK STORY
Celebrating the ‘alternative’ approach to fashion
Alternative Fashion Week is unlike any other. Open to everyone and free to the designers to participate, the energy and atmosphere are palpable. Running for a full week with 15 shows a day, attracting audiences of over 10,000 and with a vibrant fashion market of wild and wonderful accessories, this event is a prime example of how imagination and resourcefulness can overcome a mountain of economic obstacles and promote sustainability.
In 1993 Spitalfields was a deserted, run down area with a huge empty market building. Today, it is probably the most exciting cultural quarter in London with its markets, art galleries, shops, restaurants and bars attracting millions of visitors every year. Alternative Fashion Week has played its part in regenerating the area, raising its profile to a global audience and promoting hundreds of new designers.
Alternative Fashion Week has established an international reputation with world-wide press coverage. Every year Alternative Arts is overwhelmed by the number of young designers hoping to establish their label applying from all over the country, and other parts of the world, to have a catwalk show. We invest in innovation and ideas. This is fashion on the edge, risky, experimental, fashion for the future. It’s not about money or material success but inspiration and ideology, how to have designer fashion in the current financial climate, thrifty & thrilling, offering a world of real opportunities. Alternative Fashion Week provides that vital stepping stone between the graduate shows and the mainstream fashion industry.
Alternative Fashion Week is concerned to raise environmental awareness and actively supports recycling and ethical sourcing. Each year a growing number of collections supports these themes.
All our models are new. Our modelling course responds to requests from a large number of young people (and some older ones) wanting to gain experience. We are proud of the diversity of the participants, and many of them come from East London. The course is entirely free and run by a top choreographer for six weeks prior to the shows.
Alternative Arts produces Alternative Fashion Week. We are a publicly funded arts organisation presenting fashion as an exciting and original art form. Every year we have to raise the funds to present the week. We are always looking for sponsors as well as being supported by the Spitalfields Estate and Hammerson. We also support charities who take up a collection at each show.
MAGGIE PINHORN, Director.
