Newcastle Fashion Weekend

When the events organiser of Newcastle Fashion Week, Sandra, asked me to be one of the Official Bloggers, I was excited but then upon checking my schedule, a lot of things clashed throughout the week and the only event that I could make it to this year was Newcastle Fashion Weekend which was held at my old uni’s student union. I was looking forward to step on to the familiar grounds of my student days, and to finally meet Sandra! I’d already missed out on meeting her when we were actually in the same place and the same time during The LOOK Show in London, when she won the Style Search competition and got to style a model for the catwalk.

Prior to my visit, I looked in to what was to be expected. It was described as the North East’s own mini Clothes Show Live with panel talks with Ollie Locke as host, stalls to shop at and catwalks to check out. The panel talks I caught were with with university and college tutors which benefited those who were considering of studying fashion courses. There was also presentations from the founder of WIWT.com, Poppy Dinsey, Victoria White who is the editor of Company Magazine and Caryn Franklin.

One of the sponsors of the week long event, Nikki Lissoni, was there with the face of their brand Lauren Pope. Meeting the team behind jewellery brand Nikki Lissoni was great because they were so lovely and full of energy, it made me want to know more about their brand and products. My favourite part of these events isn’t the shopping aspect but meeting new people and chatting to them about what they do. They’re always so passionate about it, and their enthusiasm rubs off on me. God knows I need a kick up the arse, I’ve been really uninspired and unmotivated lately. Another person that I was pleased to meet was Melanie Kyles, a talented young girl who’s about to complete her studies. Her stall consisted of collar and accessory pieces she has made which promotes and encourages up-cycling. The other stalls I stopped by were the ever popular Mod Dolly who I’ve been following for ages, and Al’s Musique Boutique and Gentlemens Emporium. Even though Al’s designs and accessories were for men, his stall was probably my favourite there because of the way it was set up with props and merchandise like vintage trunk cases, photo frames and lots of tweed. I love that seamless cohesiveness with a brand, and you got a real sense of it from the effort he put in his pitch. Primark, Miss Selfridge and Burtons were there but it was the smaller companies that I was most interested in. In the future, I would absolutely love to see more independent retailers involved and maybe more specifically, ones based around the north east. I feel like I have more of a connection with them than the bigger brands, I could’ve chatted to them all day!