Celebrating the beauty of everyone with Models of diversity at London Fashion Week on 12th June 2023 at 7 PM, attended by The Style.World .
Models of Diversity is a registered charity established by ex-model and campaigner Angel Sinclair dedicated to broadening the modelling, beauty and media industry and opening it up to the beautiful people that we don’t often get to see on our Instagram feeds, billboards, TV ads and runways.
The brand campaigns for more brands to work with differently abled people, older models, plus size models and many more unrepresented groups.
DIVERSITY DONE RIGHT
This June with the support of the British Fashion Council, MOD will be celebrating alternative ideals of beauty by holding a positive, revolutionary Catwalk show promoting inclusivity, empowerment and self-love on schedule during London Fashion Week.
The model cast is how Models of Diversity have envisaged catwalks for the past 11 years. A lesson in inclusion that we hope will enact real change across the media, beauty and fashion industries as we lead by example, featuring top fashion designed to be inclusive from award winning designers as featured in Vogue and a LFW first by launching a designer prosthetic and showing functional fashion for the disabled and abled consumer. The show will also feature a performance from esteemed poet, Samantha Crilly. With an audience filled with celebrated professionals, industry leaders and our celebrity influencers and supporters from over a decade of work, it is sure to be a night to remember.
DESIGNERS
- UNHIDDEN
Unhidden was founded by London entrepreneur Victoria Jenkins, who was diagnosed with multiple gastrointestinal conditions after life-saving surgery in 2012, and now lives with reduced mobility. During her hospital stays in 2016 she realised the massive gap in the market for fashionable adaptive wear that would help the millions of disabled people retain their dignity as well as sense of style. Unhidden addresses the issues faced by wheelchair users, those with limited dexterity and anyone who require ports and monitors on different areas of the body. Additionally, each collection is crafted from dead stock fabric and future plans include joining rental platform Loanhood and Little Loops.
Victoria Jenkins, Founder and CEO of Unhidden, reflects on what is coming up in the next few months. “After years of development and research into adaptive design, being able to produce a runway show and work with a household brand like Kurt Geiger London is a dream come true – a dream I never thought would be open to me as a disabled woman working in the fashion industry. The time for true inclusion is now.”
- OPENBIONICS
Samantha Joanne Payne MBE is the co-founder of Open Bionics, a robotics company known globally for developing the next generation of prosthetics for amputees and for developing affordable prosthetics for children. Payne has won a number of international awards for her work and will exclusively launch a new look bionic arm inspired by Iris Van Herpen’s geometric pieces at the show to celebrate the event.
- AMOR EMEL
Described as sustainable fashion as wearable art, 20 year old Barbados designer Amor Knight-Miller specialises in one off occasion wear designed for every shape and size.
- HOUSE OF FLINT
HONEST, SLOW FASHION – DESIGNED FOR ALL SEASONS + ALL BODIES
House of Flint was created four years ago while our founder, Jessica, was living in a caravan at the bottom of a veg plot in the heart of the English countryside. We create versatile, long-lasting clothing that moves and adjusts to your body and will take you through each season, offering simplicity, function and comfort. Sizing runs from XS to 5XL, plus custom sizing or adjustments (length/etc.) are available anytime, up to any size. We do our best to represent this diverse customer base in our modelling too, with models of all sizes, genders, ages, abilities and ethnicities featuring in our collections. A sustainable ethos drives our brand, with slowly-developed garments (some of which remain from the day we originally launched!) that are designed with the body and comfort in mind, rather than a specific trend.
Jessica Townsend, Founder
“At House of Flint we do our best to represent our diverse customer base in our photographs, with models of all sizes, genders, ages, abilities and ethnicities featuring in our collections. The Models of Diversity Fashion Show feels like the perfect extension of this as we grow our brand and try to reach more people, yet never lose sight of WHO we are making for: EVERY body.”
- LIQUORISH
Established as an independent fashion brand for all, Liquorish has come a long way from its beginnings on the British high street to a global, online enterprise.
We strive with the aim of creating fashionable occasion-wear to flatter every age and shape – as we all deserve to feel fabulous.
We pride ourselves on our stunning silhouettes and vibrant patterns which ensure that Liquorish lovers are dressed to impress from desk to dawn!
Despite our international success, we have always believed in working closely with all parts of our beloved team – from our family-run design team and warehouse in London to our manufacturers and partners across the world. Our seasonal collections have consistently impressed those in the fashion world, yet we would be nothing without our diverse family of fans, to whom we owe it all.
Elif, Founder
“The runway show will inspire a new wave of acceptance and admiration for the diverse forms of beauty that exist. Through the inclusion of diverse models on the runway, Liquorish aims to challenge societal beauty standards and encourage women to embrace their uniqueness.”
- BECKONING BLOOMS
Beckoning Blooms owner Brenna Robinson draws from her childhood in flora-rich Papua New Guinea, where her formative years in a multicultural community began. Beckoning Blooms seeks to shape and transform the natural beauty of flowers in a celebration of abundance and communion between people and the natural world. Brenna’s designs marry the human form with the floral arrangement, expressing the unique beauty of each.
- HYELIM KIM
My work is a continuous exploration of expanding the clothing definition based on mundane observation, the temporal. Inspired by own wardrobe, it questions how the clothing could be made. Focusing on its randomness and slow cycle of changes, the following materials are used: wool, nylon, suiting, undyed cotton net, leather, cotton twill, viscose lining, Devore, waxed linen, linen canvasing, cotton satin, shirting, scarf silk. Taking archetypal clothing as a tool, the process is led by closing up the design element, material combination and construction. By reinterpreting clothing through emptiness, reduction, and swapping the element, the aim is to make clothing that people can engage in by use as well as clothing as a medium, reconstructing process through taking each step as the potential for an alternative way of design, developing technique for reduction.
Hyelim Kim, Designer – Diversity means…
“It is the same approach as my design process, I tried not to follow the process to make a collection. Rather I wanted to take individual approaches to each garment and outfit. I can’t expect who will wear it even though I have ideas during the process. Thinking about the various wear is natural as seeing people on the street, but in fashion, it becomes a subject. So It was a good challenge to how strongly I can bring individual wearers into my concept and how it will evolve within their character and own experience. Also, if I consider how to go about my work, it requires a contemporary subject as It needs a reason to make. So it was an opportunity to practice how I can develop my work alongside the current subject, taking a step further, not just being too much conservative. “
- PERFORMANCE FROM SAMANTHA CRILLY
Having suffered with mental illness during her teens and early twenties, drama graduate Samantha now works to promote good mental health as a personal trainer alongside her mum in her counselling practice, which allows her the time to do her script writing, acting and poetry as well.
Along with performing Samantha’s book Hope through Poetry was published through Hammersmith Health Books at the height of the pandemic in 2020. The collection of 50 poems shines a light on what it is like to live with mental illness and most importantly gives people Hope that recovery is possible.
Through Samantha’s love of poetry, she has been able to express the need for acceptance, diversity and inclusion on the catwalk with her spoken word piece ‘Models of Diversity’
- PRESENTED BY VANITY MILAN
Christopher Adamson, better known by her stage name Vanity Milan, is a British drag queen who rose to prominence after appearing in the third season of RuPaul’s Drag Race UK.
Vanity Milan was a contestant on RuPaul’s Drag Race UK’s third season in 2021. Milan won a challenge for the song “BDE,” which she recorded while on the show. She also took home three lip syncs, tying for the most on RuPaul’s Drag Race UK with series two contestant Tayce. Milan finished fourth overall and was eliminated in the eighth episode of the series.
Stay tuned for more updates from the Models of Diversity x London Fashion Week.
The Style.World representative : Jyoti
