Story by Katie Pesskin (Yr 12)
The school’s annual Fantasy Fashion Show took place on Monday night, in aid of the charity KSDP, founded by the late Stephanie Lee (ONL).
Hosted by the chairs of Art Society, aptly dressed in keeping with the theme of Truth or Dare, the show exhibited some of the girls’ fantastic creations. With designs ranging from a unique interpretation of judges’ robes, to a human champagne bottle, it truly was a spectacular evening.
Stephanie Lee’s mother, Beryl Lee, gave a moving speech to open the show. She outlined the wonderful work that KSDP has done in the past and what they hope to achieve in the future with the help of North London’s Fantasy Fashion Show. After hearing briefly from one of only two Karenni people living in the UK, the show got under way.
Girls competed in two categories: Yrs 7-9 and Yrs 10-13, aiming to win prizes of chocolate and Topshop vouchers. Throughout the evening, costumes were carefully scrutinized by an expert judging panel, consisting of Sue Lowe, a theatrical costumier and former head of wardrobe at Madame Tussauds, Patrick Roberts, course director of graphic design at Camberwell College of Arts and Hildegard Bechtler, an eminent costume and set designer.
They eventually concluded the evening by awarding the winners’ prizes to Tamara and Eleanor in Yr 11, who designed an outfit exposing the lack of truth found in newspapers, and Keshni and Bhavisha in Yr 8, who created designs based on spinner games.
After the show had finished, judge Patrick Roberts said that he thought that ‘a fantastic amount of effort and bravery’ had gone into the show and that ‘the quality of making was superb’.
We were fortunate to have, in the audience, Mary Portas, as seen on the BBC series Mary Queen of Shops, who said that the designs were "absolutely superb" and that she was "inspired" and "bowled over".
Also present was the fashion news and features editor of Grazia magazine, Melanie Rickey, who chose to attend the event instead of a Burberry party and said she was "glad I came!" Melanie also expressed that she "didn’t expect such sophistication" in the girls’ creations.
Overall, the evening was a huge success and we look forward to next year’s event, when we may see Melanie or Mary on the judging panel.
