Last night (May 4) we attended the first night of the Fashion Weekend at The Bridges shopping centre in Sunderland.
From May 4 to May 7, The Bridges is showcasing outfits from 18 of its retailers in their yearly Fashion Weekend. On the opening night we saw New Look, Topshop, Topman, Warehouse and Primark.
The catwalk was fun and energetic with lots of impressive dance moves. We loved all the embroidery on the jeans, tops and bags and our favourite item of the evening was definitely the vibrant red culottes from Topshop. They might not look like anything special when you see them on the hanger, but this is what makes events like these so great to see how to wear and style items.
Denise Dobson, owner of Dandy Events, is the director at the event and has been doing catwalks for over 25 years. As director, she visited all of the 18 retailers involved with a fashion show booklet showcasing the models, so the retailers were able to choose clothes that would look great on each individual. She also directed the catwalk itself!
Denise has worked for a range of catwalks all over the country, but in an exclusive interview she told us what it is like to do a catwalk in a shopping centre: “I’ve done all the straight walking for about 25 years so I’ve got routines in my head and then I mix them up and it depends on the size and shape of the catwalk, what your audience is going to be, age ranges…
“You have different types of catwalks, like in London the models have got what I would call a pokerface. When you’re coming into a shopping centre you don’t really want that. The girls and boys [models] need the audience to be able to relate to them so that they will go and purchase the items.”
We also caught up with the make-up artist, Samira Boussaid, who is just 18-years-old. Samira enjoys doing make-up for catwalks and photoshoots as well as henna which she has recently done for the Bridges Fashion Week last year.
She said: “When I found out about [potentially] being a make-up artist, I just loved it straight away. I think what makes it so nice to do is when the models see their reaction. It makes it worth it.” Check her out on Instagram @samira_mua1.
The event will run through to Sunday May 7 in the main square of The Bridges shopping centre outside Superdry.
