Blick Studios to host event addressing the core issues of how to establish yourself and sustain your business within the fashion industry

Blick Studios have invited a panel of fashion professionals from London and Northern Ireland to head a Fashion Forum in Belfast on Saturday 3rd December 2011.

The Fashion Forum will address the core issue of how to establish yourself and sustain your business within the fashion industry in 2011 and beyond. The panel consists of fashion journalist and acting editor of Let Them Eat Cake, Ashley Mauritzen; designer for House of Frasier, Mary Rose McGrath; fashion consultant and former buyer for New Look and the Arcadia group, Jo Appleton; stylist, designer and editor of Neu HQ Magazine, Britt Cormac; editor of online fashion magazine, Sugahfix, Katrina Doran; and designer and director of the pop-up boutique Proof, Gráinne Maher.

The Fashion Forum is a free event.  See the link below to their facebook page.

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=203609063047352

Details of the panel guests attending are below:

ASHLEY MAURITZEN

Ashley Mauritzen is a freelance journalist and editor, aspiring socialite, philosopher and wit. Since graduating in English Literature from Oxford University, she has worked variously in film, photography, fashion, brand consultancy and qualitative market research. She completed an MA in Fashion Journalism, which bagged her the London College of Fashion’s ‘Off Catwalk Media Award’. Ashley is acting Editor of Let Them Eat Cake. She has a passion for culture, in all its guises, and big picture thinking. See www.cakeit.net

MARYROSE MCGRATH

Maryrose McGrath is a multi award winning womanswear & bridal designer based in Belfast. She worked in the London for 12 years for high street and international brands such as Oasis, Jasper Conran and Matthew Williamson prior to her move back to Ireland, where she consulted for Brown Thomas and A Wear. McGrath is House Of Fraser’s in store designer. Her designs have been seen in fashion magazines over the years, including Vogue, Elle and Marie Claire. See www.maryrosemcgrath.com/

JO APPLETON

Jo Appleton is a freelance fashion consultant based in London. Over the past sixteen years she has been a fashion buyer, working in all product areas, for New Look and the Arcadia group, which includes Top Shop, Dorothy Perkins and Evans. After graduating in Retail Management at Bournemouth University, Appleton worked in London as a Buyer’s Admin Assistant before being promoted to Assistant Buyer and moving to Top Shop. After a year of travel, Appleton returned to Evans where she was promoted to Buyer. Originally from South Africa and now based in London,

BRITT CORMAC

Britt Cormac is the editor of the Neu HQ Magazine and blog which covers underground art scenes. Since 2002 she has been a freelance fashion stylist working within the fashion and film industries for clients such as the BBC and Channel 4 and styling fashion editorials for magazines including; Wound, Tank and One Small Seed. Cormac was the head of costume and design on Anja Kirschner’s Polly II: Plan for Revolution at Docklands, which screened recently at the QFT as part of the Belfast Festival at Queens. In 2004, Cormac founded the Young Designers Workshop – a non-profit organization for underprivileged young African fashion designers. See http://neuhq.blogspot.com.

KATRINA DORAN

After a career in Fashion & Beauty Marketing Katrina Doran set up Sugahfix.com in 2008, which is a NI-based online style source for fashion, beauty, entertainment, lifestyle and style. Doran has combined her marketing expertise with a parallel career as a fashion and beauty creative director, stylist and writer – working for ELLE UK in London, and beauty writer for the Irish News. Sugahfix.com won the award for Best Blog at this year’s Northern Ireland Social Media Awards. See www.sugahfix.com.

GRÁINNE MAHER

Gráinne Maher is currently NI Fashion Designer of the Year as awarded by the Ulster Tatler Magazine. Known primarily as a couture milliner, Maher studied in Dublin and London under milliner Ian Bennett. Maher brings together an array of interests and inspirations that feed her work. Pluck & Devour is a jewellery and accessories label, launched at Belfast Fashionweek in 2011. It won first place in the West Coast Cooler Citra Showcase competition. Maher’s most recent venture is setting up a pop-up boutique called Proof which stocks NI design talent. See www.grainnemahermillinery.com

To register for this event email info@blickstudios.org or contact Carol Murphy on 07906162968.