Cutting edge fashion and daring design will wow audiences at this year’s Great Yorkshire Show.
The Skipton Building Society Fashion Pavilion always draws the crowds during the three days of England’s premier agricultural show, which runs from Tuesday 12 to Thursday 14 July.
And this year is no exception, with organisers enticing some of Yorkshire’s finest up-and-coming designers and fashion houses to showcase their garments on the runway.
Making its debut at an agricultural show, and marking its 30th birthday, will be prestigious womenswear store Hobbs.
Renowned for its stylish and classic women’s clothing and shoes, Hobbs will be giving show visitors a sneak preview of clothes from its 2011 autumn/winter collection.
There are four catwalk shows each day, with the Fashion Pavilion providing the perfect backdrop for the stunning collections, created exclusively for the Great Yorkshire Show.
North Yorkshire milliner Suzanne Gill, whose bespoke head piece was singled out as ’Best Hat’ at this year’s Cheltenham Festival, will be making her debut in the Fashion Pavilion.
With a collection of 20 hats that draw inspiration from the dramatic Yorkshire coastline as well as the chic vintage of Paris, Suzanne, who is based in Ampleforth, is delighted to be at this year’s Great Yorkshire Show.
She visited the agricultural show, which takes place on the 250-acre showground on the edge of Harrogate, regularly as a child and took front row at the popular catwalk shows with her mum and aunts.
Now Suzanne will be backstage ensuring her creations look perfect on the team of models, provided by the Huddersfield-based Morton Gledhill Fashion Team.
’I feel absolutely thrilled to be taking part this year. The fashion shows are a great way of promoting the wealth of Yorkshire design talent,’ she said.
Fashion designer Hardy Punglia, a former personal shopper at Harvey Nicholls in Leeds, is also making his debut at the Show, with a new collection of clothes created especially for the countryside event.
Using as many Yorkshire-based suppliers as possible, Hardy creates wearable, contemporary clothes with a twist for his own fashion house The Left Bank, based in Huddersfield.
After opening his business four years ago with just five garments on the rails, Hardy has built up a strong reputation across the region for his fashion collections ’ and he is also delighted to be showcasing his designs at the Great Yorkshire Show.
’I feel very proud to be from Yorkshire, so, for my clothes to appear on the catwalk at England’s premier agricultural event is a complete honour for me. I am thrilled,’ he said.
Collections from final-year fashion students at Northallerton College and Doncaster College are also taking their place on the catwalk, and feature innovative shapes and styles, and include a stunning outfit created with peacock feathers.
Harvey’s of Halifax, a long-established family-run department store, will be dressing models in Joules and Laura Ashley collections, and Keighley-based Brook Taverner is providing the menswear for the fashion shows. Staff and students at Bradford College are in charge of hair and make-up.
Hosted by local television and radio celebrities Adam Tomlinson and Claire Montgomery, the Fashion Shows will also play host to the finals of the Yorkshire Agricultural Society’s Country Catwalk Stars competition.
The winners of the contest, to find the faces of the 2011 Great Yorkshire Show, will be announced on the opening day of the Show.
