Anjula Davidson....
Quick tid bit about me.
Mother of five children, foster carer, avid reader, love knitting, gardening, web design.
2005 My daughter Sherelle Graduated from Leeds University. So in 2006, when it was to be my youngest daughter Alliyah (who passed away in 1996) tenth memorial. I thought I would put my organising skills to the challenge and put on a Charity Fashion Show (no I had no experience what so ever). So I read some books on organising events, I watched a few youtube videos, made mistakes and learned a lot.
The first year we worked on it for nine months no budget and had our first show at Gatecrasher 2006 which sold out, with 300 people attending that event. We raised £2000 for the charity scope. As far as I was concerned that was it, but everyone kept asking when are we doing the next one and how could they get involved. So after two months break the team got back together and started all over again.
I was highly inspired by Kanya King of the MOBO’s, organisational skills for pulling together spectacular events and Maria Teresa Leal and COOPA-ROCA, the seamstresses cooperative based in the Rio favela of Rocinha for the social enterprise element side.
There it was…. the Ethos of Leeds Fashion Show was born. ‘We are a platform for up and coming designers to showcase their work.’ We also want to offer workshops and access to specialist machines, for that aim we will work in partnerships with others.
So for the shows in 2007 and 2008 these were held at Oceana Leeds, showcasing up to 28 designers, to an attending public of 450 (capacity). The charity we supported those years was Macmillan and Diabetes uk .
2009 was a difficult year for me, I was diagnosed with Cancer (Soft Tissue Sarcoma) and had to go through treatment as well as organise the show. I work with a bunch of fantastic ladies so they took most of the work load. I was well enough to attend the event, so that year the charity was very personal to me, we choose the Yorkshire Cancer Centre. This was also the year we had our first Designer of the Year Award, which went to Rav Mathuru.
2010 and 2011 saw a change of venue, we showcased at the Leeds City Museum. The Designer of the Year was won by Sam Davy in 2010 and in 2011 we increased the number of awards on offer, to include Emerging Designer sponsored by Republic which was won by Shi Yuen Li. Crystal Padmore picked up the Ethical/Renewable Award sponsored by Magic Number Three. For the second year Accent Clothing Sponsored the Designer of the Year Award which went to Ewa Domanska, who had worked with us in 2010 as a backstage volunteer, who said that she would come back with her collection, so it was nice to see her win it the year later. The LFS Top Male and Top Female Models went to Parisse Williams and Mansa Brown, who got offered the LFS12 Ad Campaign for this years event.
Why do I do this? Because it's something I believed in when others didn’t. I love seeing the end product and seeing the brand and others grow. It’s kind of like my 6th child.
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