Alternative Fashion Week

Alternative Fashion Week 2010



Alternative Fashion Week is an annual celebration of new designers and their collections, held in Spitalfields Market in London. Staged by Alternative Arts, the event holds a bold and exciting fashion show, typically exhibiting 14 designers each day, for 5 days. There is also an AFW fashion market which surrounds the catwalk selling a whole range of beautiful and exotic clothes, accessories and textiles by the designers seen in the show.


This year, AFW ran from Monday 19th April until Friday 23^rd April and was the biggest and boldest yet.


I attended Thursday’s fashion show and saw the stunning works of A Team Arts, Alice Barcham, Barnet College, Nicole Gill, Alex Seroge Ignatian, Jayant Kumar, Thomas Lovegrove, Sara Goodwin & Lucy Hunter’s LuaSarcy Ltd, Gemma Maher, Elif Muzaffer, Tijana & Mila Popovic, George Strood, Renata Suchanova, The University of Derby, and UCreative at Rochester. I loved every minute of the show. The scene was set by the live contemporary Jazz band, The Really Tight Corsettes, and beautiful garments were paraded down the catwalk.



This year, original and recycled textiles was a main feature, with a selection of garments made entirely from recycled materials, in an emphasis of the importance of environmental awareness.


AFW has been running since 1993 and has since massively grown in popularity. The annual event discovers an array of new designers, giving them the opportunity to establish their own labels and showcase their designs for free, meaning that slots for the catwalk are hugely sought after. AFW 2010 had over 500 designers apply for the event, from which just 70 were selected. AFW has launched a collection of designer’s careers in the past, including Gareth Pugh, whose debut at AFW resulted in an invite from Fashion East to show at London Fashion Week in Autumn 2005.



AFW 2010 Designer Line-Up: