Event Details

Alternative Arts invites you to apply to participate in ALTERNATIVE FASHION WEEK

ALTERNATIVE FASHION WEEK is firmly established as the event for innovative young designers to show their work. There is world-wide press and media coverage and an audience of over 1000 each day.

60 ORIGINAL DESIGNERS will be selected and offered the opportunity to show their work free of charge. We provide the runway, live music, publicity, changing rooms and refreshments. You provide the clothes, we provide a pool of models - or you can bring your own.

THE FASHION SHOWS take place every day from 1.15 to 2.15pm. Up to 14 designers are exhibited per show. There is also a Fashion Market from 11am to 5pm with a wide range of clothes, textiles and accessories. Designers may also have a stall for which there is a charge of £150 for the week (£30 per day)

ADMISSION TO EACH SHOW IS FREE Invitations and press passes are widely distributed. Front row seats may be reserved in advance by buyers and the press. Family and friends are welcome.

ALTERNATIVE ARTS is not an agency. We are a publicly funded arts organisation, not commercial promoters. We present fashion as an exciting and original art form. We provide a free programme listing every designer so that they can be reached directly by buyers and the press.

Alternative Fashion Week is unlike any other fashion week. Open to everyone and free to the designers to participate, the energy and atmosphere are palpable. Running for a full week with 15 shows a day, attracting audiences of over 10,000 and with a vibrant fashion market of wild and wonderful accessories, this event is a prime example of how imagination and resourcefulness can overcome a mountain of economic obstacles and promote sustainability.

In 1993 Spitalfields was a deserted, run down area with a huge empty market building. Today it is probably the most exciting cultural quarter in London with its markets, art galleries, shops, restaurants and bars attracting millions of visitors every year. Alternative Fashion Week has played its part in regenerating the area, raising its profile to a global audience and promoting hundreds of new designers.

Alternative Fashion Week has established an international reputation with world-wide press coverage. Every year Alternative Arts is overwhelmed by the number of young designers hoping to establish their label applying from all over the country, and other parts of the world, to have a catwalk show. We invest in innovation and ideas. This is fashion on the edge, risky, experimental, fashion for the future. It’s not about money or material success but inspiration and ideology, how to have designer fashion in the current financial climate, thrifty & thrilling, offering a world of real opportunities. Alternative Fashion Week provides that vital stepping stone between the graduate shows and the mainstream fashion industry.