Last week Andree, who hosted the recent BIB Charity Fashion Show, invited me to Fashion Friday, one of the opening events taking place at The Station in Broadmead.
Formally an old fire station, the huge Grade II listed building on Silver Street has had various functions since the fire bells stopped ringing, including hosting club nights, art exhibitions and book fairs. That all changed when Creative Youth got involved, and after months of hard work and huge investment, the building is now a central hub for young people.
When I hear the words ‘youth centre’ my mind is cast back to watching Byker Grove and spending Friday evenings drinking bland milkshakes in a dingy space that doubled up as an internet cafe during the day. The Station is so far removed from this, brimming with opportunity not only for the city’s teenage population, but also for organisations who want to hire out the space – the room where the catwalk show took place is huge, complete with staging, exhibition panels and professional sound and lighting rigs.
Fashion Friday was an opportunity to showcase both local talent, such as Shop Dutty and Sew That Jazz, and the teens who created their own catwalk designs in ‘Project Runway’ style workshops. Outfits ranged from silver catsuits to gothic lace dresses. I was impressed by the creativity and vibrancy of all the collections and.
As well as catwalk show there was live music, plenty of food and beer (with a remarkably short queue at the bar, thanks to the fact that the majority of guests were under 18) and lots of amazing artwork on the walls. The Station also has a cafe space, recording suite and dance studio I’m really chuffed I got to experience the opening celebrations and I look forward to seeing how the venue develops – I’d definitely recommend taking a look if you’re looking for a central location to host your fashion show in.
Thank you so much to Andree for the invite and to Mr Ship-Shape for taking most of these photos. We took so many that I’ll put together another post tomorrow with more images from the night.
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