THE BASILDON FASHION AWARDS 2016

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I’m giving this a mention on the ol’ blog because The Basildon Fashion Awards (or BasFash, as we refer to it at work) is an event close to my heart. It gives me all the smiles to work on an event that’s grown over the years into something really rather special.

If you don’t know, my ‘proper-grown-up-adulty’ job is an Events Coordinator and on a day-to-day basis, you’ll find me running around like a headless chicken organising anything from Ice Cream Tours to Beach Parties.

But back to the fashion event of the year (apart from LFW obvs…)

Every year, we (as in the South Essex College ‘we’) join forces with the lovely Eastgate Shopping Centre, Debenhams, The Echo and Joey Bevan to bring a ‘lil bit of glamour and fashion to Basildon in Essex.

For one night only, I transform myself into Lauren Conrad and work stage left at the biggest fashion event to hit Basildon in well, like forever..?

To say I had a whale of a time is an understatement.

The night comprises of clothes from Debenhams concessions (Warehouse, Red Herring, Quiz, Ted Baker), New Look, South Essex College Fashion Student designs and *drum roll please*, the fabulous designs of Joey Bevan.

If you haven’t checked out his work yet, head over to his Instagram here. He’s super talented but also super lovely. His enthusiasm and energy knows no bounds and makes me feel lazy in comparison.

He featured two collections in the show; the first was his ‘Land of Lost Toys’ collection which featured in Britain’s Next Top Model and the second was a collection he created specially for our show.

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So I spent the day last Tuesday running around after humans twice my height and pretending to know the in’s and out’s of fashion show etiquette. I witnessed some stunning designs from both students and professionals alike and, to quote a member of my team, ‘I saw more nipples in one day than ever before.’

Lol.

I also spent the day lusting over clothes like this Red Herring denim pinafore dress and this New Look ‘cold shoulder’ top. GET IN MY SHOPPING BASKET PLEASE KAY THANKS.

The most fantastic thing about the show is seeing the range of work involved. As part of the competition that we ran with schools, we had designs on the catwalk from students as young as 13 years old. There was then the work of our own students at the College and finally we had the designs of fully fledged professionals like Joey Bevan and top retail brands.

I was a pretty busy bee following scripts and chucking models on stage, but I managed to sneak a few cheeky photos in the dress rehearsal. Couldn’t resist.

 

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Can we all take note of the ‘face-lace’ used above?

I watched the MUA’s apply it to the models – it looked 1000x trickier than your average fake eyelashes. It was so dainty.

I’ve now decided that there’s no way I can leave the house on a Friday evening without a bit of ‘face-lace’ on. Gal gotta look sassy at all times right?

The shirt below is my fave piece from our Fashion Students at South Essex College. Proper cool, that.

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Had the best day working with a whole host of lovely people.

I kinda want the chance to be Lauren Conrad again, so hit me up if you need any fashion show help. I’d be all over that.

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