Fashion: A model of festival organisation

Style has finally arrived at the Fringe as the Festival welcomes fashion to its 
line-up.

The Edinburgh International Fashion Festival is set to take place at Summerhall from Thursday to Sunday, spearheaded by our resident supermodel Anna Freemantle.

The model turned mum has been mulling over the idea of creating an event during August celebrating creative talent both at home and abroad.

“Fashion has been missing from the Festival for a long time and was never done to its full potential,” says Freemantle. “There’s so much more to fashion than clothing and catwalks.”

Instead of moaning about how badly things have been done in the past Anna went to work designing a diverse programme with a little help from friends, summoning stylists, designers, photographers, artists and writers that she’s worked with during a career which saw her grace the pages of publications such as Elle and Vogue. There will be talks, film screenings and fashion exhibitions on top of runway shows and after-show parties, all of which are open to the public. There is even a discussion with a professor on neuroscience and style, looking at the development of identity expressed through the way we look.

As the idea grew arms and legs from the contents of Anna’s little black book there was one woman she knew she wanted on board. Yelda Bayraktar, the festival’s head curator, is an interior designer who works on everything from large exhibitions to personal projects. The pair have been friends for years, waiting on an opportunity to work together to arise.

“The whole thing has been very organic. When I told Yelda about it she completely understood that I wanted to do more than put on a few runway shows. She has helped this go from an idea in my head to reality.”

It is this sense of collaboration that makes the festival feel incredibly friendly. The duo appear to be turning fashion’s bad reputation of extremes, from back stage bitchiness to the regular guy on the street ridiculing it as a vacuous leisure activity, on its head.

These perceptions underestimate a business that contributes a whooping £21 billion to the UK economy each year. By opening up behind the scenes of the fashion world the pair hope to show everyone that fashion isn’t pompous or pretentious, but in fact something we live in every day of our lives.

“It’s not something that should be underestimated or dismissed.” A statement that couldn’t be more apt about the festival or the women compiling it.

Best of the Festival

Thursday

Talk: Dressing The Self: Art, Fashion and Neuroscience, £12 (£7 concession)

Time: Noon-1pm

Venue: Dissection Room, Summerhall

Exhibition: Skin Portraits, free

Time: 11am-9pm

Venue: Corner Gallery (II), Summerhall

Runway Show: Bebaroque, £16 (£7 concession) includes after-show party

Time: 8pm-10pm

Venue: Dissection Room, Summerhall

Friday

Talk: Amanda Harlech, £15 (£7 concession)

Muse and core collaborator to John Galliano and Karl Lagerfeld at Chanel, Amanda discusses her career and work with a Q&A.

Time: 6pm-7pm

Venue: Dissection Room, Summerhall

Runway show: Aimee McWilliams, £16 (£7 concession) includes after-show party

For this rare collection, Aimee presents pieces from Balmain, where she worked as creative director in 2009 and one-of-a-kinds from her eponymous label, a regular fixture on the London fashion scene.

Time: 9pm-10pm

Venue: Dissection Room, Summerhall

Saturday

Film Screening: Le Jour D’Avant, Free

The Day Before series by French director Loïc Prigent follow designers Karl Lagerfeld, Sonia Rykiel and John Paul Gaultier in the 36 hours before they send their designs down the catwalk.

Time: 3.30pm-4.30pm

Venue: Institut Francais Ecosse, 13 Randolph Crescent, Edinburgh EH3 7TT

Exhibition: The Endless Dress – The Endless Smell, Free

A collaborative artwork commissioned specifically for the Edinburgh International Fashion Festival, this exhibition is the result of a fascinating “conversation” between Berliners, Kostas Murkudis and Sissel Tolaas.

Time: 11am-9pm

Venue: Corner Gallery (I), Summerhall

Runway Show: Pam Hogg £16 (£7 concession) includes after-show party

Scottish fashion royalty shows off her collection.

Time: 8pm-10pm

Venue: Dissection Room, Summerhall

Sunday:

Talk: Cher Potter £12 (£7 concession)

Design and fashion forecaster at WGSN where she analyses changing tendencies in arts, design, architecture and new media in relation to fashion.

Time: 1.30pm-2.30pm

Venue: Dissection Room, Summerhall