Fashion show proposal
Summery:
‘the fashion show’ is a part of ‘project humanity’ that’s aim is to explore what beauty is, and who
decides it. It consists of two parts: a catwalk and a gallery. The catwalk will display the ideal beauty
(in clothes makeup and hair) designed and created by young and ‘unborn’ designers and tailors aged
between 12-18 from the Birmingham area. Each young person will have complete control over the
clothes, hair and makeup and model in order to clearly show what different young people think
beauty is, and will have to completely design and create their outfits from scratch (or recycling other
designs), although they can work as groups on a piece. As many young people from as many
backgrounds and as many places around the area as possible will be involved, allowing them to kickstart possible careers with valuable experience and in the least allowing them to showcase their
work and ideas to the general public/ a larger audience in a professional manor.
The gallery will be research about what beauty is, showcased around the catwalk and behind the
seats, that the audience could look at, watch, touch, hear and smell before and after the show. It will
be made up of lots of different materials and from lots of different sources in order to give a better
view into what makes beauty (and so the world of fashion as an example) is. It will certainly not be a
majority of writing as this is not engaging enough, instead aiming to portray the findings in as visual
a way as possible.
Objectives:
The objectives of the fashion show and surrounding gallery is to educate, enlighten and inform. It
aims to show people what makes beauty from as many perspectives as possible in one place so they
can make up their minds for themselves. At a time like this especially, when people are starting to
question and criticise what beauty is, it’s a very valuable show that would enlighten people through
the in-depth analyses of what beauty is. Questions such as ‘does the fashion industry control
beauty?’, ‘was what is seen as beautiful different in the past?’, ‘does science and the theory of
evolution have a role to play in beauty’ and ‘is beauty really in the eye of the beholder’ will be
explored among other key questions. All aspects of this subject will be explored in as much depth as
possible without bias.
The fashion show also aims to show young people’s views through their pieces which they’ll display
and which is their idea of beauty (or one of them). This will give the audience a valuable look at what
young people these days think beauty is, and will allow them to judge for themselves what beauty is
and whether people are influenced by it nowadays.
Another objective is to help these talented young people into the industry, if they so wish to get in it,
by offering them valuable experiences and with possibly priceless gains. It will allow them to meet
other young and gifted people around their age to help develop them and to encourage them. They
will also be completing some research each, helping them get a better understanding of beauty and
sharing this with the world, in turn making them view themselves better and not judge their bodies
as harshly. In this sense this project is very important: young people, girls in particular, often jusge
their bodies very harshly through their teens, leading some to extreme measures to become
‘beautiful’ such as anorexia or bulimia. Or if this route is not taken many may instead become
depressed and this can lead to self-loathing and even self-harm. In my own experience, I have seen a
lot of this and think it’s probably more common than people think. Although the majority of girls do
not go on to self-harm or become anorexic, it is common place for girls to think they are ‘fat’ or
ugly’. One of my close friends did in fact go on to starve herself and self-harm because she ‘liked’ a
guy and thought that he could never like her because she was, in her opinion, worthless fat and ugly,
when I felt as if she was in fact really pretty and very slim. It may be said that this was just mental
illness that caused her to feel this way, as she was found to be depressed, but I believe that it was
also due to the fact that she was one of the many who got a misrepresentation of what beauty is (to
the majority) when in fact, according to many studies, she actually had to gain weight, not lose it, to
become the ‘ideal beautiful’ to males. Saying this I would never recommend her, or put it in any
research or portray it in this light, that she should gain weight, instead the overwhelming objective
of this project is to show that people don’t need to change themselves for beauty. This would then
hopefully help those suffering from depression, anorexia or any other illness caused from the fight
for beauty.
Saying all of this and what I hope the outcome of the research will be, the research will be in no way
biased or misrepresented to portray a specific message. Instead the ‘big picture’ will be aimed to be
presented, leaving the audience to make their minds up themselves.
Plan:
ResourcesStage (for catwalk)
Display stands (for gallery)
Seats (for audience)
Paper (to display research)
Any other materials related to research.
Venue (to display the entire thing)
BudgetAny expenses will be paid via a crowd-funding campaign and/or sponsorships.
TimeThe gallery would stand for a couple of hours (e.g. the whole day if possible) while the fashion show
would take place at a certain and set time some time later on in the day (e.g. 5pm).
The date is also flexible but would hopefully be between late June to early August time. The first and
last ideal dates being Saturday 27th of June 2015 and Saturday 8th of August 2015.
Expected outcomes:
Expected outcomes are positive and are themed to be to do with education, enlightenment and
entertainment. The young people participating are expected to have a boost in confidence, gain a
new experience that could possibly help their future’s and learn new things through meeting and
working around and with other young people their age with similar (and different) interests to them.
They and the audience would learn more about beauty, what makes it and everything to do with it
as well as topics closely related such as the fashion industry. There will also hopefully be a rise in
people going to the venue to see the show which would benefit the venue due to the bringing of
new and different people to it. The success of the project would benefit the venue, any sponsors and
the young people participating largely.
The expected outcome would also be a rise in the self-esteem of young people (not just girls) and
the lowering in their self-hate. It will increase the confidence of both the participants and the
audience will be positively affected by this show.
Risk assessment:
The risk assessment would further depend on the final equipment and venue used. The following is
just a general outline:
Risk
Hazard
Impact
likelihood
prevention
Stands falling due Hitting people.
Minor injuries
low
Existing
to being pushed
(indoor exhibition
surveillance
stands are light)
cameras should
prevent this
behaviour as well
as a member of
staff being in
close proximity.
Model falling off
Falling on people Minor to
low
Models would
stage
and/or injuring
substantial
walk in the centre
themselves
injuries
of the stage and
nor wear
anything that
would greatly
increase their risk
of falling
Clothes catching
The venue
Minor to fatal
Very low
No smoking near
on fire
catching on fire
injuries.
anything
and/or people
flammable,
getting hurt
nothing with any
and/or damage to
fire or ability to
property
produce it near
the clothes.
Research catching The venue
Minor to fatal
Very low
No smoking inside
on fire
catching on fire
injuries
the building or
and/or people
near any of the
getting hurt
research. Nothing
and/or damage to
that has any
property
ability to produce
a flame anywhere
near the paper. If
Someone
bumping into the
stage
Person getting
hurt
Very minor
injuries
low
needed the paper
can be laminated.
The edges won’t
be too sharp to
insure that no
injuries can be
obtained if a
person were to
accidently bump
into/ get bumped
into the stage.
More detail:
The plan is to invite the young people to participate through open applications where the only
criteria be that they are between the ages of 12 and 18 (under 12 may be considered) and that they
(or one of their group member’s) can sew clothes to a good standard (help may be given by
someone over 18 as long as the majority of the work is theirs). This application will be advertised in
local newspapers and magazines around the Birmingham area and note will be sent to schools
around the area as well.
After completing a small form with a picture to show previous works, the participants will meet for a
small meeting in a local place to get to know each other a bit more and to gain a further
understanding about the whole project and what they have to do as part of it. They will be able to
team up with others if they wish to, or they can simply work by themselves, using another person as
a model, or themselves. They will all have to produce a mood-board for their piece (but this is not
done in the meeting) and each group/etc. will choose a small aspect of beauty to research and aim
to produce a minimum of 2 A4 sides of research (including pictures etc.) although they can do more,
as well as a small paragraph about what they think beauty is and who makes it. Communication
between the participants is key in this to make sure that they haven’t done the same thing as
someone else. This will improve their communication skills, confidence and help them meet new
people and make new friends, possible future business partners.
There will be short meetings every two weeks or so for progress checks and to keep tabs as well as
to offer help and advice. Once they have done their research, they will send them over and it will be
organised and kept together.
Advertisements for the actual event will be largely helped by my art Gallery project (‘project
humanity, the gallery: exploring humanity’) that is largely the same as this, but instead shows what
young people think of humanity and displays this through art to the general public. Other
advertisement will also hopefully include media help and the event will be displayed on the venue’s
website.
On the actual day, the equipment will be set up and the clothing etc. brought in in the morning
before the opening of the venue to minimise risk to the public of getting hit/ etc. and to prevent
disruption. The gallery will be organised and displayed around the catwalk and will be open for the
general public to see it the entire day. The show will then start in the afternoon and after the end
there will still be an ability to see it until the closing of the venue when it will get packed away and
taken away, once again to prevent disruption and risk.
The entire thing (or bits of it) will be videoed (especially behind the scenes) to be put on you-tube so
that people can see what it’s like behind the scenes of an (albeit small) fashion show. This would
further advertise the venue and any sponsors.
You can find out more about me on the website: www.project-humanity-arts.com
This is the project’s website, although there is not a lot of content on there about it yet as I never
like to confirm things when they are still waiting to be confirmed.
Please note, although I am young, this does not in any way make me any less capable, in fact making
me more so due to the fact that I can relate more to my audience and so know what they want,
making the show more valuable, as well as being able to relate to older people due to my being
‘older than my age’. All bank accounts and money-related aspects of the project are supervised by
my Mother who has experience managing budgets of over £2 m.