York does Vintage meets SOUK

York Does Vintage meets Souk Fashion and Lifestyle Bazaar for their biggest fashion fair yet. St William’s College will be taken over by fashionistas, creative designers and friendly stall holders on the 14^th and 15^th of May from 10am until 4.30.

York Does Vintage is a local vintage fair sourcing some of the best vintage companies in and around York, selling both old and new vintage clothing. Souk Fashion and Lifestyle Bazaar celebrates independent designers, providing stalls with a range of up-cycled and newly created items.

Co-ordinators, Alex Claydon and Sam Agnew decided to team up to provide York with a completely new fashion experience, allowing people to enjoy a variety of fashion all on one weekend. Alex comments, “our aim for the weekend is for locals and tourists to have a fun filled experience rather than just an hour of shopping”. On the Sunday they will also be working alongside The Wedding Affair to promote a day of ladies fashion in York.

The weekend will also feature styling, photography and entertainment. Cara Jemison, a professional singer from York, will be the musical entertainment in the vintage tearooms. Whilst Beauty Call will be making over customers to have their own photo shoot at Random Acts pop up studio. There will also be a raffle to raise money for the disabled children’s charity, Snappy.  

Customers can enjoy a hands on experience too at the newly launched York Clothes Swap. For just a £1 customers can swap as many of their old clothes as they like, and if nothing new catches their eye they can keep the tokens for future swaps. Alongside the clothes swap Rebecca Downes will also be running up-cycling classes, teaching basic sewing skills.

For only £1 for the entire weekend customers can expect to see stalls from Isabel Wong, Klue by Kelly Ann, Mad Elizabeth vintage, Samantha Agnew Jewellery, Audrey and Joan’s vintage, OnFriday handbags and Green Therapy.

Guest blog by Hannah Clugston 

Love to Sew

"Love to Sew....vintage hen parties" are the brain child of two friends who have joined creative forces to carry out sewing workshops at "Love to Eat" Food Store in York.

Rebecca is a designer dressmaker who produces vintage inspired homewares and made to measure bespoke bridal wear at a little studio in the country side just outside of York. Rebecca is a Fashion Tutor at York College where she teaches up and coming designers to make their creations a reality!

 

 

Louise owns a beautiful Food Store called Love to Eat, a local favourite for coffee, cakes, light bites and more!  The Food Store is unique as everything inside is produced and made by local businesses, from the paintings on the wall to the produce on the shelves. Love To Eat has established itself well and truely within the community thanks to the venue being used for different workshops and activities, bringing both local people and visitors together.

 

As well as running one day workshops such as "Love to sew a Vintage Apron" the duo run workshops for hen parties, the most popular being to customise your own bunting (often brides use it to decorate their wedding venue!)

York is a beautiful city steeped in history with plenty to see and do with an ever expanding vintage scene. Including a sewing workshop in your vintage hen do is ideal as they cater for all ages, you don't need any sewing experience and all materials are provided!  This combined with Love To Eat providing the vintage inspired menu - it's a perfect few hours of vintage fun!

Depending on numbers, workshops can be held at Love To Eat or come to you. Initial consultation with the bride/organiser will establish an individual package to suit ability and budget and can create a menu to suit you (from a buffet lunch to a vintage high tea with jam and scones!)

Guest blog by Love to Sew... Vintage Hen Parties.

Rebecca Downes will also be running bunting upcycle workshops at York does Vintage meets SOUK.   

York does Vintage meets SOUK

YORK DOES VINTAGE meets SOUK - 14 & 15 May @ St William’s College

York Does Vintage meets Souk Fashion and Lifestyle Bazaar is a unique blend of buzzing, exciting fairs showcasing fabulous gems from the quirky vintage World and exquisite fashion creations and lifestyle products. With the success of both fairs on the 5th March 2011 we have combined our ideas and come up with this electrifying weekend of shopping, relaxation, beauty and so much more!

Weave your way around one of York’s charming 14th Century yet stunning buildings with an abundance of beams, rooms, history nook and cranny’s:

• relax with one of Curiositea’s gorgeous cupcakes (she sold out twice at our first fair they were THAT GOOD!) and Yorkshire Tea’s tea’s and finger sarnies

• shop for fabulous creations from up-and-coming designers, grab yourself a cutting-edge ethical bag from onfriday or treat yourself to some sumptuous organic skincare from Green Therapy

• let Alison from Beauty Call (our pop-up beauty parlour) transform you into a gorgeous princess, then her team will finish off your look with a great vintage doo

• get pampered by Future Beauty offering mini facials and massages - great for some heavenly time out needed from your busy days shopping at St William’s College

• in-house photo studio

• visit our all day upcycle workshops

What more could you want from a day out in York!? This is going to be a truly amazing event where interaction is key!

What's Next?

A HUGE thank you to everyone who came to the very first SOUK.  Rebecca, her mum & Lizzie did an amazing job with the upcycling workshops, there wasn't a free seat all day! There was great camaraderie among the designers.... At next SOUK expect an even bigger following of people looking for unique products!

So what is next???  YORK DOES VINTAGE meets SOUK at St William’s College, York 14 & 15 May.

If you're a designer or entrepreneur and fancy selling your products at a fashion & lifestyle fair, as well as meeting like-minded people, or if LOVE shopping for something a bit different then you'll LIKE our new Facebook Page.

Everyone who likes www.facebook.com/SOUKFashionBazaar in March will be in with a chance of winning a piece of bespoke Samantha Agnew Jewellery, designed especially for YOU!

Not Long Now!

Not long until the launch of SOUK .... here's what you can look forward to!!!


:) Shopping for fantasic, unique items from fabulous designer makers!


:) A huge range of gorgeous eco-fashion!


:) Free workshops - make a corsarge brooch with Antiform, or decorate vintage bunting with Rebecca Downes!


:) Models of Diversity scouting for REAL models!


:) Enjoying the hotel's happy hour!


:) Treat Me Sweet selling bathroom goodies to raise money for Malawian charities!


:) Free entry!

I look forward to seeing you there!


Sam xxxx

For Immediate Release

Time to start writing the press releases ......

SOUK – Fashion & Lifestyle Bazaar is a new style of shopping event being launched in York next month. SOUK’s debut boasts over twenty of the area’s creative minds to present a bazaar that oozes the latest fashion and lifestyle concepts. The fabulously talented designers include Antiform, an eco-fashion label, short listed for a Marie Claire Fashion Award and Bo Carter, an independent designer who has shown her collection at Fashion Weeks around the World.

SOUK is my passion and indulgence; having my first child while at university I quickly went from a carefree shopaholic  and serial clubber, to mum. However, 14 years on and having the opportunity of living in Dubai and Singapore I have reignited my inner fashionista!

Once my children got older I finally had some time for myself. Still creative and passionate about trends, I started designing and making jewellery. While looking for a suitable outlet to sell my jewellery I attended many local fairs and found that they weren’t attracting enough of my genre, so I decided to organise my own.

Not only does SOUK give shoppers the opportunity to buy unique products and labels from up and coming designers, but it also gives designers the opportunity to sell their products in a city centre location marketed at their customer profiles.

SOUK has brought together the fashion conscious of York like no other event, and I have found the journey extremely rewarding. Not only have I been amazed by the interest I’ve had in SOUK from day one, but I’ve been touched by the amount support and encouragement I’ve been given.

Another highlight of organising SOUK is working with Alex Claydon the brainchild of York’s brand new vintage fair - ‘York does Vintage’. The joining together of SOUK and York does Vintage, secures York as a true fashion destination on the 5 March.

What’s next for SOUK … whatever the fashionista demands, though one thing is for sure the ripples will stretch beyond the city walls.

Saturday 5, March SOUK Fashion & Lifestyle Bazaar at Park Inn Hotel,
and York Does Vintage @ St Williams College.

http://www.souk-fashion-bazaar.blogspot.com/

-END-

Autumn/Winter 2011

My favourites so far from New York's Fashion Week.

If your name's not down ...

I've created a facebook event for SOUK!

Social media is slowly taking over my life!!! At lunch today, Alan passed me a Times supplement of the top 100 Influential Tweeters. I flicked through it, then put it down, joking "I'm not in it!" To which he responded "It's not a list of people who spend the most time on Twitter!!!"

Anyway, I best go, I've got to update my facebook and twitter, then check my analytics, before I do the school run :-)

Click here to put your name on the list! Hope to see you there.

Sam xx

Upcycle workshops

Upcycling is taking something that would normally be thrown away and using parts of it to make something new and FABULOUS!

At SOUK we are running two free dropin workshops. Drop by and make a corsage brooch with the highly acclaimed Antiform or decorate vintage inspired bunting with talented Rebecca Downes.

The Hatastic Story!

This blog post is courtesy of the gorgeous, talented and inspirational Chloe from HATASTIC!

I'm absolutely thrilled to be taking part in SOUK in York on 5th March – so exciting, and I can’t wait to see all the other fabulous designers there will be on the day.

However, I can already hear you cry…so who or what is ‘Hatastic!’? Well it’s an eclectic range of unique handmade hats, fascinators and hair accessories inspired by the beautiful bits and bobs sourced from remnant boxes and junk shops.

I like to think they are elegant, witty and timeless - everything a hat (and a woman) should be!

So, in plainer English, I upcycle the rejected offcuts of fabric and leather, broken bits of jewellery, old bags, shoes, belts…pretty much anything that I think could have a new life in one of my pieces.

My unique debut collection ‘Recreation’ is the best example of this, as my 10 pieces collection was made out of old games! I first showed it at Alternative Fashion Week and was lucky enough to be featured in The Times and Cosmopolitan as a result. I then took it to Brighton Fashion Week, where a piece was filmed for a BBC show shown last Summer…all very exciting!

I have made a Ready to Wear collection of hairclips of Jigsaw Kirbys, Dice Kirby and Diamante Domino Hairclips which are really fun too.

The collection I will be bring to SOUK this year, is TOP SECRET, however, I can tell you that its’ pallet is sherbet and fresh, but it’s a romantic and rich look. They will be more hats than headpieces, so much more desirable for the race season…or even a Royal Wedding perhaps?! Each design is made from an old hat that’s shape is a little old fashioned or even if its’ damaged in some way, I would like to think I’ve given it a new lease of life…

If you have an old hat that you would like some ‘oomph’ put back in it, or you have some some old jewellery that you would like to incorporate into a new piece, do bring it along with your ideas, and we can discuss the many possibilities!

Look forward to seeing you!

Chloe and I would like to thank Juliet from  www.julietlemon.com for the fantastic photos.

The Simple Solution!

As promised I have some more details from the charity ‘Treat Me Sweet’ run by sixth form students at the Grammar School at Leeds. Written by my very first guest blogger Chessy.

"All the products are handmade in the UK and we then package them uniquely ourselves. The scents are all lovely and we have tried to cater for a wide range of ages and tastes by including more tradition rose and musk scents and also fruity and sweeter scents like strawberry.

The charities we are raising money to support are:

1)The Open Arms Orphanage in Malawi which has two orphanages who care for children from 0-5. At 5 years old they are transferred into one of the 'families' which are financially supported by Open Arms. These families are a trained foster mother who will have up to five orphans for whom she cares for full time.

2) Mary's Meals- this is an incredible feeding scheme which buys maize from the local farmers and then gives one full meal a day to the village children provided they have attended school that day. This tackles the problem of under education which often occurs because families want their children to work in the fields to ensure they have enough to eat. Just £6.15 will feed a child for a whole year! This idea began in Malawi but has now spread all over the world"
 

By Chessy from Treat Me Sweet.

Thanks, Chessy I’m looking forward to relaxing with my lovely bath goodies after a busy day at SOUK.  Sam xx

Twitter

Thanks to some encouragement from Kate at Turtle Doves I've joined the world of Twitter. Stepping into the unknown is a bit daunting especially for this Yorkshire lass who still calls the cinema, the Pictures! Anyway I've done it! SOUKFashionFair is my user name, if you fancy following me and finding out what's happening at SOUK.

Sam  xx

Treat Me Sweet

SOUK is pleased to supporting Treat Me Sweet. Treat Me Sweet sells luxury handmade soaps, bath bombs and other bathroom accessories, it’s run by 6th form students at The Grammar School at Leeds who have set up a business as part of the Enterprise Advisory Scheme. All the proceeds will go to a malawian charity.  More details and photos of their fab work coming soon!

Bold & Beautiful

Look out for this season's BOLD colour trends!



Early to bed, early to rise....

I’m absolutely delighted with the range of amazingly talented designers and entrepreneurs I’ve booked for SOUK.

It’s now down to me to ensure that SOUK’s an enjoyable and successful day, so I’m heeding the wise words of Dr Scholl.

'Early to Bed. Early to Rise. Work Like hell and ADVERTISE' Dr Scholl

Sam xxx

I Heart York

I love York! It was always my favorite place to come for a day out. Then, about ten years ago, while living in Cambridge, Alan showed me a map of the UK and asked me where I wanted to live. After about two seconds consideration, my finger landed on York! So here I am!

I didn’t think I’d ever meet anyone who loved York as much as me. Then I came across Adam & Frank, from the ethical t-shirt company, I-Heart-York.

Check out their site to see who else is showing some York Love!

For your very own I-Heart-York t-shirt, come down to SOUK on Saturday 5 March.

Sam xx

A Great Start!

Despite having a cold, I’ve had a great start to the New Year! I’ve stuck to all my resolutions, (well almost all of them – my cross trainer’s still dusty!) I’ve had lots of interest in SOUK, and have booked some excellent vendors, including; a clothes designer who has shown her collection at Fashion Weeks around the world and a sustainable fashion label that was shortlisted for a Marie Claire fashion award.

Keep your eye out for guest blogs from some of our fabulous retailers.

Sam xxx

The Ulimate Monday

Like many people, most Mondays I vow to make a few changes - usually to drink less and eat healthier! However, my good intentions have gone by the wayside while I've immersed myself into the festivities, until today - the Ultimate Monday! Today I’ll be skipping my usual glass/s of wine and I’m dusting down my cross trainer!

Happy New Year and I look forward to seeing you all at SOUK.

Sam xx