Industry Only
RSVP: star@theriviereagency.com
Faduma
Suffering a near-fatal case of meningitis in 2011, Faduma was rendered paralysed from the neck down at only 34 years old. A mother to two young boys and the heartbeat of the Somali community in London, Faduma had once fostered ambitions to become a psychiatrist. By sheer will and her extraordinary faith, Faduma has managed to regain control of her neck, upper body and arm muscles and believes she can go further. As a lover of fashion and particularly of vibrant colour, Faduma has become frustrated in the last decade by the lack of clothing available to her being in a wheelchair. Fashion empowers each of us to express our identity. It’s an expression of dignity and visibility and a source of joy, fun and colour in life.
Faduma founded Faduma’s Fellowship as an opportunity for a gifted fashion designer to work in partnership with Faduma to bring to life a collection with wheelchair users at its heart. Harriet Eccleston was the successful designer selected for Faduma’s Fellowship. The first collection will be launched on Sunday 19th September, 2021, during London Fashion Week. Through Faduma’s Fellowship we hope to inspire designers, educational design institutions, the fashion industry as a whole and the media that covers it to see, acknowledge and embrace wheelchair users. So that all wheelchair users can participate in, and see themselves rightly reflected in, this joyful aspect of our shared cultural life.
About
Oxford Fashion Studio: Since 2009 Oxford Fashion Studio, led by Carl Anglim and Tiffany Saunders, has helped 700+ designers from 70+ countries to launch collections into the UK, USA and European markets. The company began at Oxford University and then grew from there to London, New York, Milan and Paris producing shows and campaigns for independent designers across all four fashion capitals. The company has produced runway shows, speaker events, retail events, photography and art exhibitions, film screenings, networking events, live photo shoots, live fashion sketching, city-wide late openings of high street retailers and museum lates including a fashion takeover of the Ashmolean Museum attracting 2,500+ attendees. This year Oxford Fashion Studio is set to play a leading role in helping designers, fashion brands and the industry as a whole to bounce back from Covid by launching a new platform for emerging designers, by introducing a sustainable design programme and by delivering Faduma’s Fellowship.
