Leeds Design Talent On Display Last night the Hebe Media team attended the launch event of 'Leeds Loves Shopping', a festival organised by Marketing Leeds and Leeds City Council. The event was designed to give the press a chance to meet and talk to some of the main people involved in the festival, such as Leeds Fashion Show, Leeds Rocks and some of the organisers.
The thing that we liked most about the evening was the attention given to Leeds-based talent. Many Leeds designers showcased examples of their work and chatted with bloggers and reporters about the part they will play in the event. It gave me a chance to catch up with James Steward, who I consider one of the best designers we have in the city, and to talk about what he hoped to get out of the festival and also more long term aims (more on this in the coming weeks).
Leeds Fashion Show and Leeds Rocks are events that form two of the real stand out 'pilars' of the festival. Leeds Fashion show is now in it's 5th year and is going from strength to strength. This year it will be held at Leeds Museum on Tuesday, October 19th and will again feature the 'Leeds Designer of The Year Award' which was won by Rav Matharu last year. The people behind this show are something special: dedicated, talented and very ambitious. It is my hope that we as a city, can support this project in a big way moving forward.
Leeds Rocks is a new event, which will showcase some of the best Leeds creative talent in fashion, music, dance and art. The event will be held at Saviles Hall (Clarence Dock) on Friday 15th October. Details of the event are been kept pretty secret at the moment but we all have high hopes that the team behind it will create a special show.
Hebe Media's Shang Ting With Lomo & Pimms!
Hebe Media's Stacey With The Gorgeous Cupcakes!
There are still some plans to be finalised like the 'Merrion Centre Fashion Show', which seems interesting/strange but we are glad that during the ten day festival there seems to be some exposure and much needed help for the independent and vintage scene in Leeds and that is most definitely the part of 'Leeds Loves Shopping' that excites us the most.
We must also at this stage say a big "thank you" to Birds Yard and others for the cool goodie bags (separate blog post coming about the bags!) and to the organisers of last night's event for some very nice nibbles and Pimms.