Designers putting on Sunday best for Bristol fashion show
The inaugural Stokes Croft Fashion, organised by Stokes Croft-based dressmaker Gilly Woo, will be held on Sunday evening at Metropolis (formally Jesters) on the Cheltenham Road.
Independent Bristol fashion businesses including Dutty, Spunky, Madidas Harrisa, Ben's Sister, Avalaan and South Blessed will all be represented.
Alongside the clothes there will also be cabaret and live music.
Gill Cockwell, founder and chief designer at Gilly Woo, began her sewing career at the age of six with her grandmother in Southmead, and was sketching designs and fashioning garments by the time she was 10.
She has been based in her Stokes Croft workshop since 2007 and is now a master craftswoman, making bridal gowns, cocktail dresses and occasion wear.
Gill, 30, said: "I'm so excited and proud to be involved in the fashion show project.
"It is heartening to see so many driven, talented people running thriving creative businesses in this difficult climate.
"It is easy to dismiss Stokes Croft as a bad area, and it does have its problems, but there is so much art and culture right here on the street and if you look a little deeper you see that Stokes Croft is home to some of the most innovative and interesting small businesses in the city.
"I find Stokes Croft and all its quirks so inspiring."
The Stokes Croft Fashion Show is a fundraising event for the People's Republic of Stokes Croft (PRSC), an organisation that promotes the area as a cultural quarter.
Chris Chalkley, from PRSC, said: "I'm very much looking forward to the fashion show. It's a very exciting development for Stokes Croft as it will be showcasing local industry.
"It's our fundamental belief that the resurgence of Stokes Croft needs to come from within. We want to make the people of Bristol aware of the amazing local talent in this area."
● The Stokes Croft Fashion Show takes place on Sunday, October 4, at 7pm in Metropolis, 135-137 Cheltenham Road.
Tickets cost £12. Send cash or cheque to Gilly Woo, 81-83 Stokes Croft, Bristol, BS1 3RD.
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