AW21 weekend wear: the Bridges’ Style Pod challenge, was it a success?

The Bridges in Sunderland decided to set our fashion journalism students a challenge to style the mannequins in The Style Pod. This involved the team planning a theme and picking the outfits and props from the retailers in the shopping centre. 

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Fashion North (@fashion_north)

The Style Pod is a joint project between the shopping centre and Sunderland’s Business Improvement District (BID). The large glass case features mannequins and a display, which will change seasonally to highlight current trends and what the stores across the centre have to offer. 

Here at Fashion North, the styling trio decided to choose the theme of family weekend wear with the inspiration of the seasonal change between autumn and winter.

Image credit: Fashion North
The finals outfits the students curated for the November style pod.

Image credit: Fashion North
From left to right: Megan West, Abigail Blewitt, Lucy Britnell

Lucy Britnell, editor at Fashion North said: “We chose the theme of weekend wear for the family with the idea behind it being autumn and winter outfits. We stuck to a neutral colour scheme of browns and beiges purely because they are on-trend at the moment. The idea came from finding a brown faux leather jacket in Primark for the women and realising the possible outfit we could create for all the families that would fit around the theme and colours.

Megan West, agony aunt at Fashion North said: “My favourite part about The Style Pod challenge was working to produce a cohesive look. Not only did we have to style a compelling outfit for each mannequin but ensure that the outfits looked amazing by themselves but also worked as part of a set.”

“I enjoyed the whole thing. It was a mix of my two favourite things: shopping and styling, and I didn’t have to worry about the price tags either which, helps.”

Image credit: Fashion North
Lucy and Abigail next to The Style Pod.

Abigail Blewitt, Contributor at Fashion North said: “I enjoyed working as a team and having the creative freedom to style the pod how we wanted as a group. My favourite outfit we styled was the male mannequin because I like the dimension and layering of the outfit with the Borg in the jacket.”

However, it is not a styling challenge without a few obstacles in the process, and for the Fashion North team, one of these was assembling the mannequins. “The most challenging part would have been dressing the mannequins as it was something we had never done before,” added Abigail.

Although, The Style Pod challenge was still a success, and the team managed to style three mannequins with pieces from retailers such as River Island, Next, H&M and more.

And we have some exciting news!

Our third year styling students on the University of Sunderland’s fashion journalism degree course will be going back to the Bridges in December to style the mannequins within The Style Pod for a second time.

Keep your eyes peeled to see what outfits they will curate and, don’t forget to tag us in your pictures of The Style Pod on Twitter @Fashion_North and remember to tag the Bridges too @bridgesshop on Instagram.

Read more about The Style Pod on Fashion North here.

Follow:

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.


Looking for Something?