A Passion for Fashion with a Conscience
Friday,29 January 2010 by KateThorogood
It’s a positive moment when you ask a school chapel full of students to raise their hand if they know what the Fairtrade organization does, and the response is a jungle of arms reaching into the air. Even more positive when you consider that the students present are the youngest in the school - if every child in years seven and eight knows about the work of Fairtrade, surely theirs will be a generation more roundly educated in the responsibilities of young people in a world which needs responsible and accountable activists.
Getting to the point of standing in the crowded chapel, with music and lights at the ready, a host of models just offstage and a presentation planned with relevant information and accessible concepts for a wide range of audience members is just as positive a process, and one I urge People & Planet group members anywhere and everywhere to dive into with enthusiasm and as many ideas as possible
Creating the Wear Fair show that we put on at Princethorpe College in the Midlands was quite an ambitious one - we needed to create a show which could be put on every day for a week in the assemblies of every year group. Simplicity turned out to be the key - we needed a balance of information and enjoyment, education and excitement which could be reproduced every day and still stimulate some thinking from students aged from 11 up to 18.
Our planning began late last year, when the deputy head of 6th Form and I sat down in her office to think about what we basically wanted to do. The show was largely created by students, but it’s always helpful to have a member of staff in on the planning to ensure good communication with the school or college authorities, maintenance staff who could build you catwalks, and other contacts who could donate clothes, help with publicity, or give hints and tips about the organizational skills needed to make your show an event to be remembered and a real success.
People & Planet have reams of information and resources available to students who want to get involved - finding out about the Wear Fair campaign took me all over the internet, but P&P’s website was the best place to look.
We decided early on that we’d get the models to choreograph their own clothes display, which enabled some to utilise experience in dance or performance, others to consider music, and overall, get as many folk involved as possible to make it a real team effort to produce an interesting and fun show. The package of clothes which we were to model arrived from People & Planet, and dress rehearsals could be stressful, but always productive times. Something we found really useful was the idea of timing everything - from the model’s catwalk song, to the presentation, to the video - it’s no good if a bell goes or two hours go by and you’re still not past the first PowerPoint slide, or if everything’s over in 15 minutes and you still have 45 to fill! We rehearsed things in parts and ran everything together a few times before we first started presenting to the school, just to get a feel for the running order.
As the person who was going to do most of the speaking, I worked on the PowerPoint, and found the research I did incredibly enlightening. As a member of P&P and someone who takes a keen interest in its work and that of other charities like it, I considered myself fairly clued up about some things, - for example brands which are in need of reforming their ideas about what’s fair and what isn’t - yet I still found myself astonished at some facts and figures I discovered whilst rootling around for info to include in my notes and the PowerPoint slides. I believe this is another positive to come from the process of organising a fashion show - educating yourself and others even more about the reason why you’re doing what you’re doing.
With the catwalk, PowerPoint and video (garnered from a geography teacher’s collection of videos - we used ‘Rosa: A Fashion Victim?’ about a woman who was a sweatshop worker/cotton picker in Uzbekistan) all prepared, we needed to get our stage ready. Calling in favours from friends who are good at lighting or technician work is a good idea - ask if the maintenance staff can help you with stage blocks to make a catwalk - utilise anything at your disposal! We found flowers left over from an event which had happened in the chapel, positioned them round our catwalk and just like that - had a catwalk lit from above, flanked by flowers and with a colourful throw decorating the upper half.
When all the efforts of those involved came together, it proved to be a winning combination. By tailoring our show to suit the ages present, we were able to make maximum impact on the people who watched. Younger years volunteered information and clapped along to the music, older students giggled along with friends on the catwalk and heard facts about their favourite high street brands with expressions of surprise, and all went away talking about what they’d seen and heard.
Organising a fashion show takes a lot of work, and a lot of commitment from those involved, but it’s such a worthwhile thing to do, and really, can only be an influence for the good. Keeping positive is really important - when organising and emailing many people, never lose sight of why you’re going to all the bother, and in the presentation I focused on the fact that young people can make change, even in the face of so many seemingly insurmountable problems. I hope this account of the efforts put in by all of us here at Princethorpe is an example of what a good idea it is to do a show - get out and get planning! It’s fun, it’s good for bringing people together as a team, and most importantly - awareness must be raised, and soon. Why not do it in a way you won’t forget? It’s certainly been one of my biggest achievements of senior school - and we are all proud of what we’ve done. Big thanks to Fiona, and I hope you all have a great experience creating your shows
Tags: annie greenabelle, fairtrade fashion show, People & Planet, princethorpe college