Fashion students’ festive fundraiser

FASHION students have kickstarted a six-month fundraising effort as they look to excel at a prestigious event in the capital next year.

A dozen dedicated students from the fashion enterprise course at Hartlepool’s Cleveland College of Art and Design campus are today hosting their very own Christmas fair - the first of a selection of fundraisers in the coming months.

All of the money raised at today’s and future events will then be put towards producing an outstanding showcase of the students’ work for when they make the trip to London for the Graduate Fashion Week in May next year.

Booking a spot to set up a stall alone at the showcase event costs £5,000, which the college pays for, but the students have now set an audacious target of £6,000 extra as they try to wow fashion icons at the event.

And the fundraising drive to hit that target started today at the Christmas fair, which is being held at Springs, at Hartlepool Marina.

The event, running from noon-7pm, features a variety of stalls selling home-made decorations, a selection of food and much more as well as quirky craft activities for kids.

Jemma Peacock, 20, is one of the final year students who will make the trip to the capital for the event, and helped to organise today’s fundraiser.

Jemma, who lives in the town centre area of Hartlepool, said: “All of the final year students will be going to the fashion week and we want to make our showcase as impressive as possible.

“An event like that is an easy way of getting scouted so we all want to show off what we are capable of.

“The more money we raise, the easier that is going to be.”

As well as today’s fundraiser, Jemma and her course-mates are already planning a fundraising movie night and date night in the coming weeks and months as they look to close in on their target. To be honest we don’t know how much we are going to raise,” added Jemma.

“But we just want to try and organise as many events as we can to raise as much as we can.”