Leeds RAG Fashion Show 2020
Fire, water, air, void and earth; these are the 5 elements that form life in the universe as we know it. On Friday the 28th and Saturday the 29th of February, the Leeds rag fashion show for 2020 was hosted for its 12th running year.
Every year, the Leeds Rag (LR) society, a student society made for fund raising and charities, hosts a set of events. These events go from abseiling on some of the university buildings, a blind dating event, but the biggest one every year is always the Leeds Rag Fashion Show (LRFS). This year, they aimed at fund raising for Plastic Oceans UK and HUBBUB, which are two charities aiming at saving the environment and offering realistic sustainable solutions and raising awareness for the environmental issues.
This year, the theme of the show was Elysian. “Elysian (adjective): Beautiful or creative; divinely inspired; peaceful and perfect”. Elysian describes a blissful state, a place of perfect happiness and laughter, like an idyll. And that’s why they chose that theme; to portray the beauty of our earth, encompassing its power and nurture and generosity.
The event started by the charity heads for LR talking about the charities chosen for this year, and the events that have been hosted by the former for fund raising so far. Then, the sustainability team came to mention how all the materials for the fashion show have only made an impact of 35 Kg of CO2.
And then the moment came. FIRE, the element of raw power, made its entrance with bold hip-hop music to demonstrate how fierce the element is. Coloured in red, yellow and orange, the models took over the scene with their attitudes and powerful outfits. Then afterward, water came with its slow calm movements. Their outfits showed how water and plastic have started to be connected in so many ways to visually represent global warming and its dangers.
Then came air, the elegant and peaceful element. Dressed in white, flowing and feathered garments, they portrayed the whimsical and flowy character of the wind. However, their assertive walks still represented the wind’s power. Then a moment of silence, and enters void. The essence of void goes around the Japanese concept of negative space, which was displayed through their dark theme and clothes that made use of all the space around the body to display boldness.
An intermission was taken, and a show by the Bollywood Vibes society gave a nice diverse atmosphere and music tastes. And finally, the last element, Earth, made their move. The element displayed the cheerful spirit of earth and how it’s an eclectic element. That was shown from the diverse colour palate and garments used and their dance moves and high spirit while walking down the stage. Afterwards, the show ended with a feel-good vibe, provided by a live singer and the final walk, which showed the harmony between all 5 elements and showed how all of them make our earth a lively welcoming place.
One thing to mention, is that all the participating models in the show and most/all of the organisers were University of Leeds students, and they even had one of our own ambassadors, Sana Nakrani.
Thank you for reading and you can always see more videos of the Leeds RAG Fashion Show on our Link to Leeds Facebook page 🙂