I felt the need to write this down so I didn’t forget it, and I also wanted to share the pictures and share the story because last week something very special happened… three businesses came together, three very small businesses (two of us only one woman bands) myself and Helen (Disko Kids) have known each other for over 25 years, Jo (The Cotswold Shed) is a new friend, but what happened last week cemented our friendship. We were also supported by her bestie Charlotte and our link to the venue. We held an Autumn / Winter showcase, a fashion show at the most fabulous venue in Birmingham!
This was a PR event, so for style influencers, in order to gain some visibility for our autumn/ winter collections. These kind of events happen a lot (generally in London) with big brands and the fashion pack of stylists and influencers are very used to going to fancy events so we knew we had to do something special and different to get them to Birmingham. Helen used to be a resident DJ at Wobble in Birmingham so we knew she should play and music would need to be involved in our show / party as well , so we also had Phil Gifford who run used to run Wobble (a house music club from the late 90’s) play. The models were all our insta friends and they strutted, shimmied and danced down the runway which was just fabulous.
We had a VERY special venue. Tucked away behind a nondescript doorway (in fact one of the guests described the door as pretty scary!)!in Birmingham's jewellery quarter something fabulous awaits. The Compound saw guests jaws dropping as they entered the building. This space has hosted Stephen Spielberg no less, as well as brands like Adidas (the week after us saw Jude Bellinghaam's gold boot launch!) BBC , Land Rover and many more. Its used for adverts, for shoots, for TV and for parties. You can find out more about hiring the space here.
The fashion was a mixture of clothing from both The Cotswold Shed and Disko Kids and the accessories were all Scott-Samuel. Together we curated looks for day, for night, for partying! As well as showcasing these on the catwalk there were rails of clothing and a table of my Scott-Samuel accessories where people could browse the collections.
I have been thinking about lot about this. What made this different … love (everyone there was in some way connected to us and we have a wonderful insta community of women who support each other day in day out even if they’ve not met in real life) lots of people commented “there was a lot of love in that room” and “you could feel the love in the room” and it was so true, also the fact that we are small (micro in the case of me and Jo) businesses meant everyone was rooting for us) like really rooting. Finally fun… it was a lot of fun… with @clubfortyclaire and @rantsandbigpants Neens hosting the catwalk it was a lot of fun. Fun is Neens middle name!! The models really enjoyed it and it showed (although some of them had never catwalked before they all loved it) and we all danced down at the end in a procession! Check out the insta reel here.
The event was sponsored by Ghost Lab cocktails, which are really delicious cocktails in cans. Non alcoholic version is coming soon. They got a lot of love from our guests!
The goody bags were Scott-Samuel striped shoppers filled with goodies from Disko Kids, the Cotswold shed, Spacemasks, Windle Lab Hair, Code Beautiful , Seed and Soul and Benefit Cosmetics. The bags themselves looked so fab against the backdrop of The Compound.
It was a fabulous event and we were all on such a high for the whole week afterwards and received such wonderful feedback from everyone who attended and took part. ❤️