Edinburgh fashion festival will bring top names to city

Feature writer/fashion columnist

Thursday 7 June 2012

IT'S been described as a cultural fashion festival and promises to bring internationally renowned figures to Edinburgh at the height of its summer festival season.

ON SHOW: Model Anna Freemantle is behind the fashion festival. Stella Tennant, top, is in the official image, wearing a creation by Vivienne Westwood, left.

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Elizabeth McMeekin

The Herald can today reveal the Edinburgh International Fashion Festival will take place between August 16 and 19 this year.

The event, which is being coordinated by a team led by Edinburgh-based model and events organiser Anna Freemantle, will include a range of exhibitions, catwalk shows and talks with fashion industry insiders.

The official image for the festival features Scottish supermodel Stella Tennant in Vivienne Westwood clothing and was shot by famous fashion photographer Juergen Teller. Ms Freemantle, who organised an Alexander McQueen tribute fashion show which took place during the festival last year, has put the Edinburgh fashion event together for the first time. Another Edinburgh International Fashion Festival took place in 2006, featuring designers including Matthew Williamson, but only lasted a year due to a lack of funding and sponsorship. Ms Freemantle, who also creates the Noir fashion events in the capital, has organised this year's event along with her artist husband Jonathan Freemantle, illustrator Jaco Justice and creative consultant Yelda Bayraktar. They hope to make the Edinburgh International Fashion Festival an annual event. Ms Freemantle said: "The festival is about fashion but it's also about the wider ideas of how fashion weaves into architecture and the concept of art and design, interior design and the science behind it all. "The main thread is fashion, but we're even talking to scientists about the science behind fabrics." The fashion festival events will take place in a range of venues in the capital, including Summerhall and the National Museum. The organisers are also working with cultural institutes, including the Danish Cultural Institute. The full programme is still being finalised but organisers say the festival will include a range of well-known international fashion brands and figures, as well as Scottish knitwear companies. They also hope to include the work of Scottish fashion students. Ms Freemantle added: "We're thinking it will become more of a cultural fashion festival. People are calling it the new fashion biennale which is great." The four-day event will include nightly catwalk shows, which will focus on one fashion label each, as well as a series of afternoon talks with influential fashion figures. There will also be a range of fashion exhibitions that will be open throughout the day. Tickets for the event are likely to be priced around £20, which would cover a day pass to see talks, exhibitions and catwalk shows. The festival will also include a charity fashion show on Friday August 17 in aid of the Maggie's cancer charity. It will take place at Prestonfield House Hotel in Edinburgh. Tickets for that event will be sold separately. Although organisers are still working on getting sponsors for the festival, they have secured the involvement of Google, which plans to stream the fashion events live on the internet.

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Edinburgh fashion festival will bring top names to city

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