On Thursday 22nd October 09, a Charity Fashion Show was held in Escucha in support of Cancer Research. It was solely targeted at students and an NUS card was required at entry and purchase of tickets. Tickets were at a set price of £6 on the door and an extra £1 for entrance to the after party.
The event included a fashion show featuring clothing from the COW store, Bambi Vintage Store, Cosmetics by Kiss & Make-up, break dancing from Nottingham Uni's Break Dancing Society and a dance performance from Nottingham Uni's Dance Society.
The event was great help to us because we were all able to see how the space was used as well as get a chance to see what worked and what didn't.
What Worked:
- Placement of Staging - The staging was placed in the centre of the venue and followed into the next room, which was separated by a curtain. This worked really well as the audience couldn't see behind the curtain, therefore offering a perfect area for models to get ready in. The event planners also hired out a raised stage, which was ideal since all attendees had a clear view of the show. However the stage itself was banged up and looked dodgy.
- Stalls - There were stalls at the back of the room featuring clothing from Cow, Bambi and Kiss & Make-up. This was a great incentive for brands to get involved since they make immediate sales after the Fashion Show.
- Performances - By having performances throughout the Fashion Show was a good way of breaking it up and entertaining the audience.
What Didn't Work:
- Bad Host - The host was hidden by the DJ booth out of view of the audience, reading off a piece of paper and didn't seem to engage with the audience or subject matter itself; cancer.
- Poor Lighting - The lighting settings were all off. It was either full beam lights on or too dark to see the clothes. Later we asked the manager, Tom, why this was? He said that they had spot lights available but decided against it because it drew attention to dodgy looking staging.
- Intervals - Originally we loved the end of using intervals to break up and extend our fashion show throughout the night. However viewing this event, the intervals were too frequent, which made the event boring and on-going. This was made much worse due to the lack of direction and conducting.
- Lack of Direction and Conducting - The event planners/host did not give the audience any direction of what was happening with the event; For Example when there was an interval, they did not say how long the interval would last, whether the audience were able to have time to get up to go to the bar, toilet break, cigarette break, etc.
- Marketing and Capacity - Considering the event was targeted at students, we hadn't seen any marketing or campaigning on the Trent campuses. The only reason we heard about it was because we considering the venue and the manager told us. This lack of marketing was clearly illustrated by the lack of attendees. We counted roughly 34 people attending the event which has the ability to fit a capacity of 250, and most of the people who attended seemed friends of the host, models, dancers, etc.
- No sense of Decoration - The venue seemed to look exactly as it was except for the stage. It is important we don't over decorate but at least put our own touch here and there, such as leaflets, posters, donation boxes, etc.
Overall we loved the venue; it is an ideal place to hold an up market event as well as a Fashion Show. Attending the Cancer Research Student Fashion Show really help us think about things we would normally forget about or wouldn't even consider. Over the next couple of months it is important we as a group attend as many fashion shows as possible to get some great ideas, experience as well as see 'what not to do'.
Posted by: Michelle Nielsen
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