The War Store

ARMY mum Rhiannon Manning sits in her garage piled high with food and basic supplies - to send our desperately under-funded heroes in Afghanistan.

Furious Rhiannon is posting 30 boxes a week to the frontline after learning they are having to live without essentials like SOAP and TOOTHPASTE.

She set up a campaign to collect as many items on the troops' wishlist as she could after getting desperate phone calls about the situation from her Rifleman son Arfon Thomas, 20.

Son ... rifleman Arfon Thomas

Supporters send toiletries, food such as Pot Noodles and other basics. Rhiannon and hubby Andy sort them into shoeboxes in their garage in Biggin Hill, Kent.

The lack of supplies is revealed days after we launched our "Don't You Know There's A Bloody War On?" campaign demanding a better deal for troops in Afghanistan.

It follows revelations of shortages of kit, helicopters and safe armoured vehicles.

Rhiannon, 40, said: "My son went in June and I found out there was nothing out there. They were having to share or go without.

"It's not just his regiment, but in general."

Gifts ... treats that will be sent to Our Boys

Blasting the Government's lack of support, she said: "If you expect these guys to go to war they should have soap and toothpaste. They should be looked after."

Rhiannon began by sending weekly parcels to Arfon and his 4 Rifles comrades in Nad-e-Ali, Helmand. She now has 600 Facebook supporters and a network of helpers. She said she gets constant pleas for socks which wear thin on harsh daily patrols.

Rhiannon added: "They have no money out there and no shops. I shouldn't have to do this. But no one else is going to help. It's down to the families and the British public to bail them out.

"It's a huge boost to morale when they get the parcels. But it irks me when you hear other troops like the Americans are better looked after."

Arfon is home from his six-month tour next month. But Rhiannon vowed: "I won't stop."

An MoD spokesman said last night: "Toiletries are a personal responsibility and are available from NAAFI outlets in main bases to purchase prior to deploying to more austere bases."

a.crick@the-sun.co.uk

Posted by: Grace

X Factor Help for Heroes Single

Would be a good idea to try and get some of the old X Factor lot involved with our event.

Posted by: Michelle

Freewheelin Poster

Currently doing an internship at Freewheelin PR... Here's one of their old invitation for a press day. Thought the style of the old war posters fit in well with the Help for Heroes charity. Maybe we should consider using this technique for our marketing campaign.

Posted by: Michelle

Charity Workshops

Sewing workshops are very unique and different way to raise money. Although this may not be very relevant and fit in with the Help for Heroes Charity, it could be a possible way to generate money for the event itself.

For a small donation, you could bring along old garments, you wish to customize or create from scratch bags, simple tops and skirts etc.. By getting some of the Textile and Fashion students to help out, fabric and embellishments donated.

Especially with the recession and offices trying to cut down costs by scrapping Christmas do's, etc, it would good idea to target offices.

This website http://www.themakelounge.com/workshops/category/sewing_and_textilesjust show some of the types of workshops we could offer.

Posted by: Michelle

Westfield Charity Event

Grazia and retail guru Mary Portas team up for Westfield luxury charity-shop initiative

LONDON - TV retail expert Mary Portas has teamed up with Grazia to open a 'Living and Giving' shop at the Westfield London shopping centre to raise money for Save the Children as well as Barnardos and Mind.

Mary Portas luxury charity shop

The luxury second-hand goods store will open between 4 and 27 June and will be staffed by celebrity volunteers, celebrity ambassadors, Grazia staff and charity helpers, along with handpicked fashion designers, writers and stylists invited by Grazia.

Westfield London has donated the retail space in the high-end Village area of the complex and Portas has teamed up with the weekly glossy magazine to encourage its fashion-savvy readers to give unwanted products to the shop. Grazia has also asked the world's most influential people and desirable brands to donate

This is an interesting event to look into, as it is another way of raising money for charities through fashion. Also Grazia and Mary Portas could be kept in mind with regard to sponsors and donations as they both support charities. 

http://www.marketingmagazine.co.uk/news/909579/Grazia-retail-guru-Mary-Portas-team-Westfield-luxury-charity-shop-initiative/

Posted By: Lottie

High Street Fashion Week

High Street Fashion Week line-up announced

Oxford Street in London will host the first-ever high street fashion week in September.

It has been confirmed today that from September 7th-11th, London’s Oxford Street will cement its fashion credentials by hosting the country’s first high street fashion week.

Over five days, the magic of trade-only events such as London Fashion Week will be brought to the enjoyment of Oxford Street shoppers, through a range of fashion shows, exhibitions, designer trunk shows and launch parties.

The face of the ‘High Street Fashion Week on Oxford Street’ is Alesha Dixon, who was voted ‘High Street Fashion Queen’ by 100,00 West End shoppers who were asked to vote for their favourite high street fashion icon.

The department stores confirmed to be taking part are: Selfridges, Debenhams, House of Fraser and John Lewis, alongside retailers such as Marks & Spencer, Faith, Topman, Uniqlo, Next, Office, River Island, Knickerbox and Clarks. The stores plan to feature special exhibitions of their collections, offer money-off promotions and extend their opening hours to host late-night shopping evenings. Paul Costelloe, a London Fashion Week veteran designer, will even be popping in to John Lewis to hold a fashion show to introduce his new collection.

The event has the full backing of the British Fashion Council, as its chairman Harold Tillman said: "As we prepare to celebrate 25 years of the British Fashion Council and London Fashion Week in September, we are pleased that High Street Fashion Week on Oxford Street is joining the celebrations and supporting the high street, retail industry and its diverse talent."

The project is being managed by the New West End Company, who are dedicated to driving forward London’s West End as the world’s top shopping destination. It is supported and run by major retailers and property owners in nearby Bond Street, Oxford Street and Regent Street.

www.highstreetfashionweek.com

By Olivia Bergin
Published: 4:18PM BST 21 Aug 2009

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/fashion/fashionnews/6067820/High-Street-Fashion-Week-line-up-announced.html

Would be great to get some of these brands involved with Help for Heroes...

Posted by: Michelle

HSBC Charity fashion show

HSBC Charity Fashion Show

Young graduate

Young graduate bankers stage fashion show to raise money for Fairbridge, with a little help from the high street.

By Olivia Bergin
Published: 4:48PM BST 13 Aug 2009

It’s a hazy time in fashion at the moment. While the world of high fashion lies dormant, the high street is preparing to make that tricky transition from bikinis to autumnal wares.

This period of serenity is the calm before the fashion-month storm, which kicks off with shows in New York in September. But somewhere over in the deep commercial depths of Canary Wharf last night, a fashion rendezvous was going full swing at the top of the HSBC tower.

Those bright young things lucky enough to have secured themselves a place on the bank’s prestigious graduate training scheme had pooled their time and resources to stage an impressive charity fashion show in aid of Fairbridge, a charity which helps deprived children across the country.

The bank’s huge boardroom was transformed from conference space to catwalk, as models (all of whom, in fact, have day jobs with HSBC) paraded up and down the runway in the name of charity.

A notable list of brands lent their support to the event – the catwalk show kicked off with the ubiquitous House of Holland (designer Henry Holland’s infamous slogan T-shirts are adored by the fashion pack. Think: “I’ll show you who’s boss Kate Moss”); a collection of dresses and jeans from Cheap Monday; and high street favourites L.K Bennett and Orla Kiely.

The remarkable £15,000 raised during the evening was generated through ticket sales, and raffle and charity auction. The money will go to Fairbridge, who support 13-25 year-old inner city youths with education and confidence-building, through a range of diverse activities such as windsailing to cooking. The charity’s CEO, Andrew Pervis, used to be the chief executive of organic beauty company Neal’s Yard before dedicating his time to helping underprivileged youngsters.

A highlight of the evening occurred when ‘Mrs. Ab-Fab’, fashion PR guru Lynne Franks, took to the stage. She wasn’t strutting her stuff on the catwalk, but provided an inspiring insight into her work over the past 25 years in the fashion industry, regaling the assembled bankers on how she instigated London Fashion Week by putting up tents around London in which designers could stage their shows.

I found this interesting how even HSBC Bank has put on a charity fashion show. It could also help us with our ideas of how to put on the event and raise money.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/fashion/fashionnews/6023137/HSBC-Charity-fashion-show.html

Posted By: Lottie

Northwich air cadets scale Scafell Pike to support Help for Heroes charity Aug 24 2009 By Dave Goodban

AIR cadets from the 146 Northwich squadron have raised more than £2,000 for forces charity injured service me and women during two recent expeditions.

A group of 20 youngsters walked the Whitegate Way in July to raise money for St Dunstan’s Charity for blind and visually impaired ex-officers, raising more than £600.

And another group of 22 cadets and staff scaled the 978m Scafell Pike in the Lake District, the highest peak in England.

Together the intrepid crew collected more than £1,500 in sponsorship for Help for Heroes, which aims to provide better facilities to people injured in the forces.

I found this article in the Mid-Cheshire Chronicle. This is the kind of press we need to aim for in media such as local newspapers.

Posted By: Lottie

Topshop/Topman

Fashion Targets Breast Cancer

Topshop/Topman's involvement, whether it would be to use their clothes in a Fashion video/show/auction/etc, would be a good for the Help for Heroes Charity event, since they appeal to a large sector of the student market.

Currently other charity events Topshop are involved with is 'Fashion targets Breast Cancer'.

Posted by: Michelle

Just giving

We are now registered on justgiving.com to enable sponsors and the general public to make donations for both the charity and the event. Please take a look at our just giving page and dig deep!

http://www.justgiving.com/helpforheroescharityevent/

Posted by: Grace

Venue - Rooftop gardens

If we are having the event in London, I thought a perfect venue would be The Roof Gardens. As we all know, they are set in stunning surroundings and as you can see from the images, they have room for both the charity auction on stage and for a relaxing environment by the bar.

Having the event in London allows for easy press coverage, and a close location for celebrities/guests that want to come to the event

Posted by: Grace

Social Networking

If the first and second generations of social networking portals were about opening up the world, the third generation is about closing it again. Invitation only sites are popping up everywhere, creating exclusive, gated virtual communities that shut out the “masses.”

A Small World helped kick off the ‘invitation-only' trend by restricting new membership to those invited by current members. But sometimes an invitation just isn’t enough. Gaining entry into this new generation of private online world can involve an intimidating process of review, such as career-orientated sites bluechipexpert.com and doostang.com, where aspiring members must submit their resumes to be considered for acceptance. Other sites are blatantly and proudly parochial, such as aprivateclub.com, which is only for New Yorkers in-the-know.

If you were lucky enough to score an invitation to the Cannes Film Festival, you would also have gained access to the festival’s ‘private’ online portal, cannes2008.ning.com, created for attendees only.

In Asia, well heeled society-types and business movers and shakers can network at dianefay.com, a members only online club where one has to be invited to gain entry. In Europe decayenne.com offers a similar exclusive club concept for invited members only.

Wall Street types can commiserate the global financial meltdown with eachother in the privacy of cyberspace atbankersavenue.com, a members-only portal for bankers who must be invited to join.

Global expats can catch up on local knowledge and network at internations.org. The members-only site is for diplomats, members of IGOs and NGOs, foreign correspondents and other expatriates employed by multinational companies and their family members.

If you don't bat for the 'straight' team you can connect with other successful 'power' gays at cosmocircle.net .

If bizarre beliefs are more your thing then you can try getting into the spacecollective.org invite-only community, where "forward thinking terrestrials exchange ideas and information about the state of the species, their planet and the universe." Sounds like a blast. Where do we sign up?

American Express should jump into the fray here and create a network for people who use their ‘black’card. Are businesses missing out by not creating exclusive environments for their high end customers?

I think this concept is really interesting and something to take on board when marketing our fashion show. With social networking being so popular, we could set up an exclusive group where people who are involved in or are attending the event can join.

http://www.thecoolhunter.co.uk/article/detail/1425/a-smaller-world

Posted By: Lottie

Wives set up helpline for traumatised soldiers

Independent Saturday 22nd August 09

Posted by: Michelle

Tweed

"Last Saturday (15th August), London was besieged by a veritable monsoon of breeches and bicycles, 'tally-ho's and 'I say's, lambchops and handlebars (both the 'tache and rather necessary bicycular accouterment), as well over 100 be-tweeded chaps and chapettes embarked on a 20-odd mile two-wheeled saunter through town.

Beginning, aptly enough, with a meander down Saville Row, they rolled at a most gentlemanly pace through the West End, around Regent's Park, along the Embankment and across the City, ending up (after a brief sojourn at Tour de Ville for a spot of tea and cake) at the Bethnal Green Working Men's Club – where prizes were given for dapperness and moustachioed finesse, and many a cucumber-tinged Hendrick's and tonic was supped in the process."

http://www.urbanjunkies.com/london/party-pics-archive-09/0130-tweed.html








I thought this was such a quirky and fun way to promote Hendrick's Gin and links in well with the stereotypical view of the brand. Perhaps when thinking of ways to raise money for 'Help for Heroes', something like this would be great to aspire to.

Posted by: Michelle

Lady Dior

The Lady Noire Affair

Dior has taken the Fashion short films trend as well as the idea of a TV ad campaign one step further by creating a series of mini films. It is based around Hitchcock's Stage Fright, which Christian Dior designed the costumes for. The first installment is "The Lady Noire Affair" and the second " Lady Rouge" can be viewed shortly at ladydior.com now.

New and innovative trend emerging of Fashion short-films, something we could consider making with perhaps the help of independent film-makers or film students and then holding a premier event for it.

Posted by: Michelle