Behind the Scenes - Voni Blu SS22 Fashion Show
- Anjali Patel
- May 11, 2022
- 6 min read
Every friend in a friendship group has a specific role that they play within the group and I believe that I have always been ‘that’ friend who loves to make plans and organise everything to a T. Event planning has always been a hobby of mine, which is why I was in my element when it came to planning this Fashion Show.
I work for a ladies fashion boutique called Voni Blu in Northampton town centre as a digital marketing assistant; with it being a small business, it means I get stuck in with everything, from website and social media management to trips to the tailors, or assisting customers with styling help and most recently I was put in charge of planning a Charity Fashion Show to show off the boutiques Spring/Summer 22, along with the assistance of my colleague. All proceeds were donated to the Northampton Hope Centre, a charity that works to improve the lives of those affected by poverty and exclusion.
Initially, the plan was to host a ladies afternoon tea event at the newly refurbished Northampton Museum and Art Gallery, however after a meeting with the museum, the idea was presented to hold an even bigger event, a fashion show. With a date in mind and all afternoon tea ideas now out the window, the planning of the Fashion Show began with only a month to spare.
It was a worry of mine that planning a large scale like this may be out of my comfort zone, but I ended up enjoyed all aspects of it and I have gained so many new skills and experiences and can now learn from any hiccups that were encountered going forward in the future.
There were many elements that contributed into making up a Fashion Show. The first step was to pick a date and decide on the theme of the fashion show; we opted for Spring/Summer 22 collections and chose to hold the fashion show on Monday 21st March at 7 to 9pm. The tickets were £10 each, which included entry to the show as well as a glass of prosecco on arrival and during the interval, as well as canapes. Now that the event was going to be much bigger than anticipated, it was thought that it would be a good idea to collaborate with another boutique to encourage a wider range of audiences, which is when we turned to Bonsoire. Bonsoire in also a Northampton-based boutique based at Holdenby House, specialising in beautiful bridal and prom dresses. We set up a meeting with Bonsoire to discuss the ideas we had so far and were thrilled to find out that they were onboard with the plan.
The next step was to start advertising posters, and sending out mailer and social media content, all designed by myself, to inform the public about the show. Within the first week of advertising the show, we had already sold over 50 tickets, which was absolutely incredible considering the capacity was 104 tickets. We also designed the tickets and had them sent off for printing, in preparation to post to our audience members. We swiftly got in touch with the Northampton Hope Centre to make them aware of our plans and invited them along to the event to give a short speech to introduce the show and give the audience some further information about the charity.
The most important step of the show was to find models. A lot of Voni Blu’s customer based is women aged 30+, so it was important that we had a diverse range of body types, so that the audience could see different styles of clothing modelled on different shapes of women as opposed to the standard tall and slim models. We were lucky to be in touch with a group of dancers who were happy to help as models and called them into the store individually to start outfit fittings. Before the models arrived for their fittings, my colleague and I picked out several outfits that we thought would look good on the model and then requested the models to try on all the outfits and took pictures of each outfit. After we had had all the models in, we narrowed down which outfits looked best for each model, by using the photos that were taken. Bonsoire also used the same models, and the models went over to Holdenby House Stables, where Bonsoire is based, and had fittings in ballgowns and prom dresses.
We got in touch with Finn of Finn & Co, a hairdressing salon in Northampton Town Centre, to ask him if him and his team would be happy to do all of the models’ hairstyles on the day on the fashion show and yet again we were very lucky to have another group of generous people on our team. Finn also offered to supply us with a makeup artist for the models, as well as goody bags for the audience, which was extremely helpful as these were the next couple of things to tick off from the to-do list.
Now that the models had been taken care of, we needed backstage helpers to assist with dressing each model for outfit changes as we had 4 outfits for each model. We turned to the University of Northampton to offer fashion students work experience of working backstage at the fashion show. We had an amazing response and had lots of students who wanted the experience, but unfortunately had to narrow it down to only 6 helpers, who were brilliant. The chance to help at the fashion show for photography and videography was also opened to photography and videography students at the university and we received an excellent end product from them all.
Most of the planning had been done at this point and it was just a case of selling the remainder of the tickets and keeping Bonsoire updated with everything that had been going on. The were some final finishing touches that needed to be made, like a music playlist and running list for the outfits and models. We were absolutely delighted when we came to realise a couple of days before the show that we had completely sold out of tickets.
On the day of the show, we had lots to do at the museum before the show. We started off by briefing all the backstage helpers, photographers and videographers then left them to start with their setup. Next, we hung up each models’ outfits on separate rails, in running order and briefed the backstage helpers and left them with the outfits to familiarise themselves with each garment. We then set up the music just in time for the models starting to arrive so we could do a walk-through rehearsal with them. All the models had high spirits, positive vibes and the sun was shining, so we were super optimistic for the show in the evening. Once we ran through how the models would be walking on and off the stage and posing, it was time for their hair and makeup to be done at the salon, which was conveniently up the road from the museum. Whilst the models were away, we got to work on any finishing touches, like placing all the goody bags underneath the seats and ensuring that backstage was clean and tidy. When the models returned, it was almost show time, so the backstage helpers got to work and started getting the models dressed into their first outfit and waited for the signal for the big moment.
Once the show started, it was very high intensity and the dressers worked extremely hard to ensure that the models were dressed on time for their next appearance on stage. After all the models had worn their first 3 Voni Blu outfits the show paused for an interval.
During the interval, a raffle was hosted to keep the audience entertained and to help raise even more money for the Northampton Hope Centre. We had written to lots of businesses in the Town Centre and were extremely grateful with the turnaround, as we received over 30 generous raffle prizes from spa treatment vouchers to clothing garments and GHD hair straighteners to meal vouchers. We also had some hair demonstrations by Finn on the models which the audience loved.
The second half of the show began by showcasing Bonsoire’s dresses, which again ran smoothly thanks to our brilliant backstage assistants. To close the show in the finale, half the models got dressed into some evening dresses from Voni Blu and the other half continued in Bonsoire’s gowns. We had an amazing response from the audience during the finale and it appeared that everyone had enjoyed themselves, including the models and all helpers. Overall, the fashion show was a huge success and was a great experience. Something that I learnt from planning this event was about how important teamwork is because without all of the different individuals and groups of people we had on board of this event, we really would not have been able to do it without them and the show would not have been as successful as it was, or possibly wouldn’t have even been able to make it past the idea stage if it was not for their generosity. By the end of the event we managed to raise an amazing, £1608.72, that we were so happy to hand over to the Northampton Hope Centre.
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