Manchester Fashion Week: Relaunch and Reveal!

Manchester Fashion Week's website relaunched this week with an exciting exclusive addition- part of the line up for the event!

Manchester Fashion Week: New Look Webpage

The MCRFW event in association with Boohoo, released part of their show schedule for the event which is to take place this April 22nd- 26th 2013 at The National Football Museum. Both High Street and Online names will feature on the MCRFW catwalk including official sponsors Boohoo alongside other well known fashion retailers NEXT, Ted Baker, Forever 21 and Reiss, and they are just the start!

The event will host 30 fashion shows throughout the 5 days in April, as well as 20 exhibition spaces. The beginning of the week, (Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday) will be dedicated to High Street trends, featuring some of the best of what our high street faves have to offer! Thursday is a showcase for New Talent and Education, dedicated to future fashion talent, whilst Friday is all about the luxury designer collections hitting the MCRFW catwalk. I can hardly wait!

It has now been confirmed that award-winning online retailer boohoo are this years Manchester Fashion Week headline sponsors. The Manchester based brand have become one of the leading online retailers for affordable, trend-led fashion since their launch in 2006. Inspired by catwalk trends and celebrity style they have built their own celebrity following including fans such as The Saturday's star Rochelle Humes, and Hollywood stars, Ashley Tisdale, Kylie Jenner and Ashley Benson. Attendees of the exciting fashion event that is #MCRFW13 will get the chance to view boohoo's latest mainline collection as well as an exclusive sneak peek of the next boohoo boutique collection, which won't be going on sale until the end of April 2013.

Brand new MCRFW logo in association with boohoo

Another event highlight will undoubtedly be Made in Chelsea star Jamie Laing's Candy Kittens label runway debut! Any MIC fans (including myself!) will be pleased to hear that the TV personality, Candy Kittens founder and the fun loving Chelsea "boi" will be in attendance to see his first ever fashion show as well as hosting a pop-up Candy Kittens candy shop featuring their new Spring/Summer range of sweets and fashion apparel. 

Keep your eyes peeled on the MCRFW website for more updates and announcements as Designers and luxury brands showing on the final day of MCRFW will be announced in the next few weeks when all show tickets go on sale to the general public.

Sign up now for the MCRFW newsletter at www.mcrfashionweek.com where you will receive the latest news and information.

Kate
#MCRFW13

Manchester Fashion Week

●      MCRFW was established in 2012 to:

●      To create a must-visit event for fashion festival that offers an affordable and aspirational platform for fashion designers and retailers to reach buyers

●      Build a legacy which ensures MFW drives investments in the city’s economy, as well as the UK fashion industry

●      Support the development of fashion talent in Manchester and within the UK

○      www.mcrfashionweek.com/

○      www.facebook.com/Manchester-Fashion-Week

○      @MCRFashionWeek

○      www.youtube.com/mcrfw

#MCRFW13 LOCAL SCHOOLGIRL ‘BAGS’ SUCCESS WITH MANCHESTER FASHION WEEK

So continuing on with my updates of Manchester Fashion Week, I felt this star deserved a post all of her own!

Ocean Williams of Whalley Range High School for girls, is the lucky winner of Manchester Fashion Week's competition in conjunction with sponsors, Duo Plastics, to design the official VIP bag for this years event!

Proud, Ocean Williams with Head Mistress of Whalley Range High School Ms Kane and MCRFW Head of Fashion Kirsty Attwood

(Image courtesy of MCRFW Photographer ©Leemo Rante)

The other 9 finalists at Whalley Range High School for girls

(Image courtesy of MCRFW Photographer ©Leemo Rante)

Ocean (aged 14) competed with fellow Whalley Range High School students to create an original and exciting design to adorn the goody bags of this years Manchester Fashion Week's VIP guests.

“We chose Whalley Range High School as it is a school that is right at the heart of Manchester. Their textiles department has recently been refurbished and a number of their pupils go on to design courses or aspire to work within the fashion industry. This year Manchester Fashion Week is all about creating a legacy for fashion in our city and we wanted to develop this from the grass roots.”

 Kirsty Attwood, Head of Fashion at  MCRFW

And clearly they chose right, with the 1500 strong girls school not failing to deliver! The girls were given a brief to create a design that "epitomises Manchester and reflects its edgy style." According to the MCRFW judges panel the standard was so high they narrowed it down to a final 10 designs before Ocean was crowned the winner! 

“It was such a hard decision for us to make. The girls had come up with some amazing ideas but we felt Ocean really made an impact and loved use of the Manchester skyline and striking colours.”

Nadine Merabi, Manchester Designer, Fashionista and MCRFW Judge 

Alongside Nadine on the judging panel was Duo Plastic UK's commercial Director, Anthony Brimelow. Leading polythene packaging manufacturer Duo Plastics UK is a Manchester-based company, which works with leading retailers including ASOS, Boohoo.com and JD Williams, follows professional hair salon brand REDKEN and cosmetics giant Lancome in their desire to support the northern fashion event. Duo will be supplying all the packaging required during the seven day event including gift bags with any purchases and VIP goody bags. Brimelow shares his thoughts on why he has found this to be suh a good project for the company to get involved in:

“As a business retail is one of our key sectors – we count leading brands such as ASOS, Boohoo.com and JD Williams among our customers so there’s a natural affinity between us and many of the companies involved in Manchester Fashion Week. In fact we have worked with Boohoo.com, another ambassador of MCRFW from day one and supported them as their business has rapidly grown.
“In addition to this, we are a proud Manchester business and we’re celebrating our 25^th anniversary this year. The city has been good to us so the way Manchester Fashion Week is nurturing new talent and helping young businesses grow really appeals to us. 

Anthony Brimelow, Duo Plastic UK Commercial Director and MCRFW Judge

Most excitingly for Ocean, the design will now be made into an actual bag by the leading Manchester based packaging manufacturer and suppliers Duo UK, who are one of Manchester Fashion Week's main sponsors.  How wonderful for her to see her design come to life! 

Ocean's Winning Design! 

This has been a fantastic way of MCRFW integrating young talent into their event. With 2013 marking Manchester Fashion Week's second year, we will see an increase in catwalk shows and exhibition space and with 20% of the 30 catwalks being donated to independent British Fashion Designers, it is providing them with a fantastic opportunity to showcase their work and for us to champion the new fashionistas of the future. 

Congratulations Ocean! 

To view the top 10 Whalley Range High School designs, visit the official MCRFW website by logging on to www.mcrfashionweek.com . Boohoo.com are the official sponsors to Manchester Fashion Week 2013, visit their site here at www.boohoo.com 

Kate
#MCRFW

Manchester Fashion Week

●      MFW was established in 2012 to:

●      To create a must-visit event for fashion festival that offers an affordable and aspirational platform for fashion designers and retailers to reach buyers

●      Build a legacy which ensures MFW drives investments in the city’s economy, as well as the UK fashion industry

●      Support the development of fashion talent in Manchester and within the UK

○      www.mcrfashionweek.com/

○      www.facebook.com/Manchester-Fashion-Week

○      @MCRFashionWeek

○      www.youtube.com/mcrfw

Duo Plastics UK

Celebrating its 25^th anniversary next year, family-owned Duo Plastics UK is a leading manufacturer of polythene packaging. The £25m turnover company, which manufactures all its products at its sites in Manchester and Derby, serves leading brands within the e-retail, mail order, industrial and entertainment sectors. Retail clients include ASOS, Boohoo.com, JD Williams and F&F. For further information visit www.duo-uk.co.uk or call 0161 2035767.