A thrilling celebration of the imagination, Fashion and Fairytale is a community event, guaranteed to lift everyone's spirit.

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In celebration of Bath’s status as a leading historical centre of fashion, and home to the renowned Bath Fashion Museum, we are excited to announce a community, sustainable fashion competition and exhibition, entitled, ‘Fashion and Fairytale’, to be held in the Assembly Rooms in August 2020. We are delighted to be collaborating with green energy firm and exhibition sponsor Pure Planet.

 

 

Taking inspiration from the recent Fashioned from Nature and 2012 Ballgowns: British Glamour since 1950 exhibitions at the V&A, this exhibition seeks to be a creative catalyst to encourage local primary, secondary and college students to create their own nature inspired, sustainable outfit designs. Winning designs in the four age categories will not only see their outfit created by local craftspeople and displayed at the exhibition, but will be awarded fantastic individual prizes. 

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Bath based fashion designer, Cindy Beadman, whose clients included royalty and celebrity, will display a retrospective collection of her work, alongside those of the winning entries. The exhibition will be complemented by one of her ballgowns borrowed from Bath Fashion Museum’s collection, as well as images of her iconic ball gown that caused such a stir during the V&A exhibition.

 

With 30 years in charge of the Fashion Research Centre and then as Curator of the Museum of Costume, we are grateful for the consultancy of Penelope Ruddock.

 

Framed by her own life as a game-keeper’s daughter and her subsequent fairytale rise to success as an international fashion designer in the 1970’s, Cindy's designs fuse together her deep love of nature and sense of beauty with a whimsical imagination and couture artistry.

 

In keeping with her ethos of working only with natural fibres, we invite submissions that weave together nature, sustainability and ethical production. All winning creations will also feature in the memoir of her life in fashion to be produced for the occasion.

 

Looking to enthuse as many children as possible from the larger community, we encourage entries from all ethnic or social backgrounds, including specialist schools. Cindy hopes that all children can experience the sense of peace and wellbeing that nature gave her.

 

To help stimulate the imagination and support teachers, we have created curriculum informed resources for each age category; including the story of the magical, ‘Mistress Make-Believe,’ - for Key Stage 1 children - whose gown is available for viewing at the Fashion Museum throughout the project.

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The competition is now CLOSED and we have been delighted by the 300+ entries that showcase the creativity and imaginations of young people across B&NES. Our four winners were announced in February 2020 - click to view - and their winning designs will be exhibited in the Octagon Salon of the Assembly Rooms, alongside Cindy's own creations between the 3rd and 5th of August.

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For FREE resources and information on sustainable fashion, click here.

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