Fashion / News
2025 Bristol Fashion Show to be biggest yet
The Bristol Fashion Show is an annual event which provides a platform for local independent designers, artists and models across the city.
They aim to celebrate diversity and create opportunities for designers and models of all backgrounds through annual catwalk events.
This year’s fashion show will take place at the Prospect Building on Sunday.
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The event will consist of a three-hour catwalk show, starting at 6pm, which will showcase the work of over 20 independent designers.
There will be live singers, dancers and a full bar as well as a marketplace with stalls from 15 independent brands.
The catwalk event will showcase streetwear, eveningwear, childrenswear, swimwear, crochet and more
Founded nine years ago, the Bristol Fashion Show is the brainchild of Butzi Schlaadt, a knitwear designer from Germany.
She organises the show with her daughter Laila and Charley Evans – a bespoke digital embroidery designer who has worked closely with the organisation for the past five years.
Butzi’s love for Bristol fashion is at the heart of the organisation: “I grew up in a little village in Germany where you were not allowed to be different but, you come to Bristol, and it’s so wonderful, colourful and diverse. It doesn’t matter who you are, you can wear whatever you want and nobody judges you.”
The Bristol Fashion Show hosted their first catwalk events in partnership with former Hamilton House-based social enterprise Coexist.
Although their collaboration with the now defunct social enterprise ended in 2018, tickets sold out at subsequent shows at The Mount Without in 2022 and 2023.
After previously having had to turn people away due to the volume of attendees, the team decided they would need a significantly larger venue.
This year’s show at the Prospect Building will be their biggest yet.
Butzi said: “I love what happens to the models when they walk down the catwalk – they shine a light”
Butzi and her team are focussed on providing an accessible and inclusive platform for designers and models of all experience levels – from those sewing outfits in their bedrooms to those with established fashion brands.
In fact, Bristol Fashion Show events often include returning designers who the team stays in regular contact with after their catwalks come to a close.
More recently, the Bristol Fashion Show team have seen designers working with each other on collections in a collaborative, rather than competitive, atmosphere.
“It’s like a family; we’re all supporting each other and opening doors for each other,” Charley says.
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The Bristol Fashion Show began fundraising for causes and charities in 2022, with profits from the 2022 event going towards a muscular dystrophy fundraiser for Carmela Chillery-Watson, a young girl with muscular dystrophy.
Carmela has modelled in Bristol Fashion Show events ever since.
Carmella hopes to become an advocate for accessible clothing
Carmela has challenged the Bristol Fashion Show to include a greater range of disabled models in the 2026 catwalk event.
Proceeds from this year’s Bristol Fashion Show will go towards supporting the hospice charity Penny Brohn UK.
Main photo: Butzi Schlaadt
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