Edinburgh College of Art Fashion Show 2016

So if you've been following me on social media lately, you will know that once more I took part as a catwalk model for the Edinburgh College of Art Fashion Show 2016. (You can see my experience last year here!) The week consisted of six back-to-back shows in front of the audience, showcasing the designs of fashion, textiles and costume students from every stage at university. This picture on the left is by Gareth Easton (as are the other shots in this post) of me modelling the graduate collection by Alice Robinson, who is now off to London to do her masters. Congratulations to everyone involved, as I am sure you will agree if you saw the show, all the hard work definitely paid off.

Another talented designer I walked for was Alice Firman, a firm (pun definitely intended) favourite for many. Her gorgeous collection was covered with intricately appliquéd petals, hand-painted details, luxurious tailoring, and all topped off with cowboy boots and a badass theme song (

listen to Occupy Your Mind-The Villagers to get the vibe!

) so all the models and I fiercely took to the runway. It was also great to get the VIP, behind-the scenes insight of what goes into a fashion show, and having organised and helped out at them before, its quite nice to just be the 'coat hanger' for once! I really enjoyed hopping up to above the sculpture court so I could watch the Performance Costume section. This part of the show really is something special, with musical theatre, interpretive dance and such beautifully intricate, elaborate and often simply genius clothes that you will never see on the high street, rather the opera house!

Something that really hit me this year, as someone who occasionally partakes in modelling but has no idea what she's doing, was the issue of body confidence. I think the general public opinion is that fashion models, female ones especially, have poor sell-esteem and body image, simply because they are perhaps slimmer than your average. There are even the ignorant few that believe all catwalk models are anorexic, but this isn't true in a supportive community like ECA. In fact, our lunch breaks were the highlight of the experience! After maybe a few hours of feeling awkward about not only changing in front of others, but others changing your clothes too. Bras and pants everywhere. Hairy legs and pimples and uneven tans galore. But by the final show, everyone is quite comfortable having a half naked group chat with total strangers, in the name of fashion. Basically, I love doing the ECA shows because they make me feel better about my body. And I get to play dress up of course.