FRONT ROW FASHION CROWN
Liz Bishop ~ Accidental Founder: Brighton Fashion
Week
Alex Thirwell, Chrlotte Church and BFW Founder Liz Bishop
Courtesy Daily Mail Online
Fashion Weeks have been walking the catwalks of New
York, London, Paris and Milan longer than Janice Dickinson has been
‘interestingly opinionated’. The Front Rows have been decorated with Vogue
editors like Anna Wintour and her famous bob and dark Jackie-o’s for as many
years as Mick Jagger has had moves.
Fashion Weeks have grown into annual moveable feasts
of unsurpassable fashion brand carnivals with fluid limbed mannequins parading on
elite catwalks above the heads of rigidly poised and seated industry aficionados
whose only dance to these elaborate productions are the raising of their
mobile/cell phones to capture pictures and videos of the debut of new lines and
ranges and the genius of the designers.
In the last decade Fashion Weeks have spread further
afield from the fab four main fashion capitals to other regions like the
Caribbean, countries like Canada and cities…like Brighton, UK.
Liz Bishop wears the Front Row Fashion Crown of Brighton’s own successful and growing fashion
week (BFW); a crown that she wears happily but not easily because, as I found
out when I chatted to the BFW founder, she stated:
“I never studied fashion in my life!”
PJ: Liz, what
was the inspiration that brought you to introduce a fashion week to Brighton?
Liz Bishop: Accident really PJ. 10 years ago a friend,
a designer who wanted to show her work, threw down the challenge really for me
to put on a show. Everything was London, London, London and my friend, the
designer, had grown quite frustrated. It was very hard to get into London Fashion
Week and there seemed to be this big gap full of designers and even businesses
within the fashion industry and fashion fans all over the nation.
Seeing that, I decided that we would do a show for
Brighton and it grew from there. We carried on doing it, them. A first we had Brighton designers but quickly
realised that there were designers all over the country and the world who were
in the same situation, wanting to show in something akin to a major city
fashion week. They were unable to mount shows in London Fashion Week or Paris
Fashion Week etc.
So BFW was born as Brighton
Frocks then it became known as Brighton
Fashion Weekend and yearly we showed at various locations like the city’s
big theatres, its big seafront hotels, some of their really beautiful massive
churches that could hold 800 seated and Brighton’s famous Corn Exchange...a
most marvellous space.
I don’t know where I got the guts to go for it. I
thought, why not? I went all out for it. It was that or I knew I’d never do it.
PJ: The
brightonfashionweek.com homepage states “Ten years, 10 whole years; a decade
and a belief. An idea and a bebop energy; a movement; rhythm; a conviction
committed to keep it happening.” Your idea has established itself over the
decade as one of the city’s most exciting fixtures for the industry both in and
around Brighton and the nation as a whole. What talents have been nurtured and
give rise to by BFW?
Liz Bishop: Many have gone on to show and show again
and grow in their own right, securing funding and their own client base. We
showed Tom Lipop who went on to design for the UK high street brand River Island. Of course Jess Eaton who
worked closely behind the scenes in early shows before helping to find a strong
direction for BFW and then emerging as a star designer herself with clients
like Lady Gaga and national editorial spreads with Kate Moss featuring her
Roadkill Couture. There is Katie Jones the wonderful knitwear designer. There
are many.
PJ: You
obviously have a business building prowess. What is your own fashion
background? Where did you study fashion?
Liz Bishop: I never studied fashion in my life! I have
an interest in individuality and clothing and what we wear. Personally I would
be okay if someone wore the same as me, had the same as me but I think
fashion should be about individuality…the way you put your look together with
what you have and can afford. I suppose I’d have to be rich to assure that nobody
showed up in the same outfit as me.
I’m interested in clothes but I also think music is
part of fashion. All things are. I do think that fashion should celebrate
individuality and I know though that it can breed insecurity. I have a
different view point on it not having come from a fashion background and having
got into it by accident. I think it’s about esteem, self-esteem, the
individual’s self-esteem. I mean what is fashion? Who is fashion? Is fashion
simply about a person who is told what to wear by their friends?
BFW is about fashion but it really is a platform to
bring together the drama, the dance and music. These things feature on our
catwalks for BFW. We have designers making clothes but we also have costume
designers creating AMAZING stuff that you could never wear out but it is drama.
So performers, dancers, musicians, artists…all aspects are part of our fashion
shows. That’s what I love, my soul and the designer’s soul. I love the fact
that the public come to be entertained by ALL of it and really enjoy our brand
of fashion show at BFW.
PJ: In addition
to the smorgasbord of sensation that the actual catwalk shows bring, what other
features are part of the BFW fixture?
Liz Bishop: We are big on sustainable designers and this year as every year we have events
and networking opportunities away from the actual show dates. This year we had
the Sustain Debate on the ethics in
fashion looking at the industry’s relationship to nature with amazing speakers
and panellists like Green MP Caroline Lucas and Tasmin Lejeune the CEO of
Ethical Fashion forum.
You can say all of the designers at BFW are
sustainable designers. It’s quality over quantity we have and not the ethos of
going to Primark or similar and spending a fiver on something that will fall
apart. You buy less and it lasts longer. People think they’re acting
sustainable but by consuming cheaply and in quantity. They’re not. Every
industry has to think about our planet, fashion is no different.
PJ: How have BFW
shows grown?
Liz Bishop: Well in the last few weeks and the run-up
to our events we have had thousands of new likes on social media and they are
growing every day. Social media, as we all know all too well, is a pretty good
way to gauge interests. Obviously not all our impact is online either. We’ve
got some amazing media partners again this year too.
PJ: Tell us
who.
Liz Bishop: As our functionality in the industry
spreads and our conviction to all aspects of fashion, the environment and the
arts is proven we get more and more interest from further afield which of
course is very good and this year we’ve caught the attentions of the Berlin
based magazine Kaltblut. These media
sponsors and partners help us to secure the funds needed every year to build on
the year before. We’ve partnered with Dash Magazine, OK Magazine, all the
important local Brighton media; Latest TV and Juice FM Radio.
We’ve got the support of the Chamber of Commerce, The
Fashion Education Network, loads of varied and well thought out partners really
reflecting the importance of the fashion industry to the community as a whole.
PJ: What role do
the sponsors actually play?
Liz Bishop: Well, financial support to us is key as I
said but at BFW we also take care of our sponsors at the associated network
events where sponsors’ reps can meet and speak to the designers. Not all our sponsors are involved in fashion
so they can see first hand at these events what the designer side has to offer.
We stage nights too where the press can come and do their thing with individual
designers and other creatives involved.
BFW creates a lot of value and we want to retain it and a lot of other
projects and related work can be discussed by this networking and realised. We
aim to take care of everyone.
We aim to continue to attract and appeal to ever more
strong sponsors.
PJ: And you’ve
got the crucial support of the online events and social directory We Love
Brighton.
Liz Bishop: Certainly! You know Brighton is held in
such high regard by people who travel the world. The international set that
come in and out of the UK. When they are
here they know of the main places that have a buzz and a vibe and besides
London or maybe Bristol they all have visited or heard of the lifestyle of
Brighton and welovebrighhton.com is a
prime place to let the world know what’s on when they’re in the city. An event
like BFW captures the imagination of those very people who take what they’ve
experienced of BFW back to the four corners of the world and our presence and
reputation becomes that more established. More people with varied interest, not
just fashion, read online now like here with pleasureseeker.me than read traditional
magazines. That’s the way media has been headed now for some years and it is
amazingly beneficial to events like BFW without a doubt.
The only thing that held us back in the past was the
idea that other fashion events or ‘weeks’ in places like Tunbridge Wells or
something , who must have a fashion event by now too, was thought of as
‘regional’.
Not EVERYTHING happens in London and we were one of
the first ‘external’ fashion events set up in the UK and yes, people at first
thought, ‘Oh, okay, Brighton Designers’.
PJ: But you’ve
managed to give BFW national and international legs now haven’t you?
Liz Bishop: Yes.
We’ve had designers down from London to show. We’ve had designers over from
Japan to show but we’ve helped newbies to step out nationally too so it’s a
growing exchange of talents and BFW has grown up to become a viable showcase
for the UK fashion industry. This year
look out for great things from Louise O’Mahoney, certainly one to watch. She
designs for real women as well as size 0’s. Now she is a Brighton girl who
already does really well and now will go far. She’s already of great interest
to the American market.
PJ: You have a
smattering of celebs popping up and dropping into the BFW events don’t you?
Liz Bishop: I suppose so. Brighton has scores of
famous residents as it is and a good selection of them can be seen quietly
enjoying the shows and not courting any press or wanting to stand at the
branding board for our photographers and the other associated national press.
That’s fine. We also have some real showmanship with entertainers like Toyah
Wilcox who we incorporated into the show one year to host and present sections.
She was truly amazing.
PJ: Charlotte
Church was your own special guest last year and the nationals featured you both
arriving and being seated in the first row before the show.
Liz Bishop: Yes, that’s right. She was so supportive
and very interested to see what BFW had to offer. We were all very pleased for
her attending. Emma Thompson was scheduled to be with us that night too but she
was to be my famous no show! She just was unable to come down at the last
minute but she still was so supportive of BFW. Hopefully we will see her in the
front row another time.
PJ: What is the
future for BFW?
Liz Bishop: It will grow and maybe we will represent
Brighton by taking BFW on the road and stage one of the week’s shows in an
enormous church in London? Why not? I’m always thinking of the next BFW
spectacle to excite audiences and drive the passion of the designers. Wouldn’t
it be wild to stage a fabulous show in Brighton in the smuggler’s tunnels under
the city?
Images
of Liz: Photo Credit Alex Thirwell
To see how Brighton
Fashion Week strode the catwalk and who emerged as its stars this year visit www.brightonfashionweek.com and visit www.facebook.com/brightonfashionweek
BRIGHTON FASHION WEEK IS NOW CASTING FOR 2015
BFW CATWALK MODELS
IMAGE: MELISSA BUCHANAN
PETER JARRETTE IS AN ARTIST AND INTERNATIONALLY PUBLISHED AUTHOR OF SEVERAL FICTION, NON-FICTION AND MEMOIR ADULT TITLES AND CHILDREN'S BOOKS. HE IS A COLUMNIST AND CELEBRITY INTERVIEWER.
HIS LATEST NEWLY RELEASED NOVEL 'SIGNATURE WALK' IS AVAILABLE @ AMAZON WORLDWIDE KINDLE & PAPERBACK
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