This was a freelance project I undertook at La Cité internationale de la Dentelle et de la Mode de (The City of Lace Museum) in Calais, France.

I was appointed Event Manager to organise a one day Fashion Event on Saturday 5th October 2013 in conjunction with the launch of the new static Crysalis ‘Lace Effects’ Exhibition. The exhibition is funded by the Interreg 2 Seas Crysalis Project and was held at the International Centre for Lace and Fashion in Calais (CIDM), France from 5th October 2013 to 18th March 2014, followed by second exhibition from 25th March 2014 to December 2014. The exhibition consisted of 40 artists work, 20 of those are UCA staff, students, the same university I graduated from in June 2013. For more information of the Crysalis Project please visit the website www.crysalis-network.eu

The event gave 15 graduate designers from UCA Rochester an opportunity to show their work to an international audience. There were 5 collections chosen from each design course, Fashion Textiles: Print, Fashion Design and Fashion Atelier. It was great to see work by professional, academic and student designers exhibited side by side. The show provided a platform for many aspiring young creatives, as well as the 15 graduate designers, the hair and make up artists, models and dressers where sourced from local collages in Calais and all made up an enthusiastic team who worked together fantastically on the day.  Amongst the ammeter models were 3 French TV Presenters Sandra Lou, Karima Charni & Laurie Cholewa who all done a fantastic job and bought a celebrity following with them to the show. There was live music on the day provided by London based DJ, Mannalou. who regularly plays in London super clubs like Egg, Pacha & Ministry of Sound which added to the shows electric atmosphere.

The event consisted of 2 catwalk shows at 3pm & 4pm, which were both recorded & streamed live throughout the museum and via the website. The catwalk show was open to public viewing and was also attended by Leading Calais dignitaries including the Mayor of the City of Calais and the Head of the Fine Arts Museum. The catwalk event was also covered by both local and national press in France and was also filmed for French TV which provided excellent publicity for everyone involved. 

A special thanks goes out to all the staff at the City of Lace Museum, with very special thanks to Delphine Nicola who worked hard alongside myself in the weeks leading up to the show and Shazia Boucher, Head of Fashion at the Museum and whose idea it was to put on the show, my assistant Melissa Peck a recent graduate from UCA Rochester who assisted backstage on the day, Kyle Altringham for providing live music for the show, the Lycée professionnel du Détroit (Calais) and the students from lycée Jean Bosco, fashion department who were in charge of the dressing; the Lycée professionnel Saint-Pierre (Calais) who were in charge of the hair & make up, the french regional TV France 3 Côte d'Opale who filmed the event and all of the collages, pupils & tutors who were involved in the smooth running of this fantastic event.