I was first contacted about doing a show in early 2019 in London and unfortunately I missed the date. I was contacted again via Instagram and I thought I’d find out more. I contacted the organiser and she was having a Collections Presentation on July 20th 2019 in the Canalside Birmingham.
I signed up for the 5 piece Collection and then closer to the event I was invited to present 3 more designs making it a collection of 8. This was extremely short notice but as a designer I am use to working with short notice and I pulled the 8 Piece dress & Millinery Collection together.
The Presentation is different to a Fashion Show, A presentation is where a group of Bloggers and the press gather and the models come out in my designs and pose for them to critic and take pictures and as the organiser stated ‘By taking part in our collection presentation; designers will receive publicity leading up to our event and rolling publicity after the event.
There was to be a meet the press session at 2pm, which is always a great way of introducing myself and speaking about my collection. Plus I was instructed to bring press kits, which is normally press release, bio’s images etc which I did. I did receive a phone call from the organiser a few days before stating some press had cancelled.
Myself and my mum flew into Birmingham on the 6.45 am flight and as the organiser stated the show would run until 8pm we booked a hotel for the night. I purchased a ticker for the event also as she could be taking photographs for me.
event day
On the right is the running order I was sent for the event. I arrived at the hotel before 11am (I like to be early). I went upstairs to meet the organiser and the models and other designers. The room where the presentation was a conference room and it wasn’t set up.
The whole thing was very dis-organised, however I was invited by the organiser to show my work with them in New York in 2020. 2pm came and went and eventually I was introduced to a blogger. She was lovely but that was the only press/bloggers I was introduced to.
I found out a lot of the people presenting and modelling had pulled out of the event. Then before the beginning one of the designers and the organiser had an argument in front of everyone and the designer pulled her collection.
At this point I was already disappointed, There were 2 bloggers and approx 2-3 photographers that had showed up. The rest of the audience was made up of the make up artists, parents, family members and the designers. There was less than 20 people present.
This was obviously not what I had signed up for and I was so disappointed by the whole event. The event also ended far earlier than 8pm so I gathered up my belongings and left. The next morning I requested a refund for the event and received it. However I was still out of pocket financially, for my time and I had created this beautiful collection and received nothing in return.
However what I did get from the event was I made some new connections with the make up artists, the student designers and I contacted one of the photographers Renata Clarke and was able to get some images from her. Needless to say I didn’t take up the offer of going to New York.
You can read about The Oceanic Nature Collection here.
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