Edinburgh Fashion Week

Feature by Fern Logue | 04 Mar 2015

The Scottish fashion focus is often on the West Coast, but at the start of March, the capital will be giving Glasgow a run for its money. Edinburgh Fashion Week, running from 7-15 March, is part of This is Edinburgh, a campaign designed to bring families and shoppers into the city centre, to celebrate everything that the city has to offer. This new event on the fashion calendar focuses on style and shopping, championing retailers from across the city, as well as emerging design talent.

Edinburgh has seen several luxury retailers open their doors in recent years, from Burberry to Tommy Hilfiger, and the city is quickly becoming a hub for the sartorially-minded to indulge in high quality designer as well as independent, vintage and high-street shopping. Edinburgh Fashion Week will see a variety of fashion and shopping-related events taking over the city with the centre of the action being the indoor fashion hub at the Mound, opening for the first weekend of the event.

During this opening weekend, the fashion hub will be a go-to for shoppers with pop-up shops and capsule stores from the likes of Cambridge Satchel Company, Stockbridge Boutique, West End favourite Sam Brown and Grassmarket-based Fabhatrix, who create unique, handmade millinery. The hub will also house an exhibition space, showcasing exclusives, previews and some of the best new talent from Edinburgh College of Art. Edinburgh Fashion Week will also offer a series of runway shows, showing garments from retailers and designers across the city centre, with shops teaming up to form ‘collectives’. The shows will provide something for fans of all styles, with the Princes Street collective showcasing high-street brands Gap, Next, River Island and Vans, and the West End Collective providing garments from independent boutiques Frontiers, Just G Boutique, Odyssey Boutique and the aforementioned Sam Brown.

Those who are fans of emerging design talent may be interested in the ECA ‘Best of 2014’ show, which will be closing the launch weekend and will feature pieces by four Edinburgh College of Art graduates. Nominee for Scottish Fashion Graduate of the year Kirsty Frew will show her collection Hate is Just a Lack of Imagination, inspired by the explorations of human and religious morality found in the writing of Graham Greene. Lingerie and fashion designer Briony Campbell-Ross takes a ‘cheeky’ approach to the liberation of women through the constantly evolving styles of lingerie in her collection. The show will also include work by Sarah Innes, who produces sportswear-inspired pieces which question ideas of class and taste with their aesthetic that floats somewhere between luxury and sub-culture streetwear. Finally Briony Strange, who last year showed at LFW as part of the F.A.D. fashion futures award, will present a collection which has a graphic feel, taking its inspiration from everything from science to modern art and architecture.

Tickets for the shows are free to reserve but are selling out quickly. If you fancy a bit of ‘frowing’ as well as a series of goodies, VIP tickets are also available priced at £10.

For those that are looking to improve their fashion knowledge, or are after some styling tips and advice on the new season trends and how to dress for your specific body shape, there will be tutorials running, as well as in-store events at stores such as French Connection, LK Bennett, Gap, Covet, Godiva Boutique and Grassmarket Tartan, with styling advice from personal stylists and local bloggers.

And an added bonus if your purse strings are a little tight – a whole host of stores across the city, including Walker Slater, will be offering exclusive discounts throughout the week. With minimum discounts of 20% it’ll be a great week for spending that hard-earned cash.


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7-8 Mar, the Mound and various other venues 11.30am-6pm http://thisisedinburgh.com/edinburghfashionweek