Yep, Manchester has its own Fashion Week! Technically it was more of a long weekend, but that is beside the point. This year I was a MCRFW Official Blogger – I attended the evening of catwalks at the beautiful Hallé St Peters in Ancoats on Saturday night, where collections from a variety of mostly local independent designers, brands and boutiques were showcased. Admittedly I was a little skeptical of the event following what seemed to be a fairly large organisational failure last time around (the phrase ‘Manchester Fashion Week has been brought back from the dead’ was thrown around a lot this weekend!), but I’m very glad I went with an open mind as the team excelled themselves and pulled off a great event – huge congratulations are in order! 

I wore a Primark dress, my eBay bargain coat, off-white SheLikes pointed heels and Primark mini satchel (above – outfit post to follow!), and sat front row with other fab northern bloggers including Lily Kitten, Irena, Joanna, Katie and Jessica (pictured below, plus more bloggers out of shot).

*photo by Secret d’Or*

It was great to see vintage on the catwalk, supplied by Gin & Tonic, an online vintage store based in Manchester’s Northern Quarter. I’m a sucker for anything beaded so the 1920s style beaded cami look pictured below made me head straight over to their website, and it’s only £15?! The collection featured more casual heritage style looks and some more extravagant party wear too, something for everyone. 

Central St Martins graduate Clare Baxter blew everyone away with her showgirl inspired collection, which closed the first half of MCRFW Day 2. The models looked unreal in tiny embellished bodysuits, killer heels and insane headgear; I thought that the black and silver look below was particularly stunning. Check out my Instagram for a video clip of the full collection. 

The second half of Day 2 was opened by Eustratia – a Manchester designer who produces handcrafted latex items with a twist. The collection wasn’t your usual black and red catsuits, which one might stereotypically expect from a latex designer, but instead consisted of a lot of super girly, pastel coloured designs. I especially loved the floral detailing.

Lily Lulu is another local boutique; their catwalk collection included a variety of fun summer daytime and evening party looks. The gorgeous jumpsuits were definitely a highlight.

Next up was Boda Skins, a luxury leather brand specialising in some of the most amazing leather jackets I’ve ever seen! Of course the biker jackets were my favourite, especially the gorgeous turquoise number pictured below.

Aftershock was the penultimate collection, and the well established British retailer put on another of my favourite shows of the evening. Of course I was immediately drawn to the sparkliest of looks, such as the 1920s style dress and stunning mermaid-esque gown pictured below, but Aftershock is definitely more versatile than that – their collection included classy daytime looks as well as glam evening wear. 

That concludes my MCRFW 2014, I’m hoping that next year will be just as successful and I’m looking forward to attending already. Hats off to the gorgeous models who were a credit to their agency Pha (the speed of the outfit changes was mind blowing!), the organisers and MCRFW team, sponsors, and of course all the designers and boutiques involved. 

Other designers who showed on the Saturday who I did not feature in this post were 304# Clothing, Florina, The Horsebird, Aouse Of Jones, Luke 1977 and Dead Legacy; these were more street inspired brands with a heavier focus on menswear, with the exception of Florina who showed a very eccentric collection of nature inspired garments made from plants. 

These are all my photos unless stated otherwise, so if you’re using any please be sure to link back to my blog. If you’d like to see some more professional quality photos of all the collections from all three days of MCRFW 2014 visit the MCRFW website.

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