Students bring sustainable fashion to the Palacio Lounge

A group of Creative Events Management BA(Hons) students transformed Falmouth’s Palacio Lounge into a sustainability themed catwalk for their final-year project.

All three year groups on Falmouth University’s BA(Hons) Creative Events Management course are challenged by their tutors to execute a live event as part of their end of year assessments, with all the proceeds going to charities of the student’s choosing.

Final-year students Grace Haycocks, Minty Morgan and Lucy Ford teamed up to co-deliver their event ‘Evolving Fashion’. But before the doors of Falmouth’s Palacio Lounge could open to host their environmental extravaganza, the trio had to put in hours of preparation.

As Grace recalls, “we were asked to present our ideas to a panel of industry experts before any of the on-the-day planning could start. We had to demonstrate who the event was aimed at, propose a list of  locations for it and make the case for why it should take place.

“We were also asked to provide a rough schedule for the evening, as well as our marketing and financial strategies to ensure the event would be well attended.”  

After being given the green light by the university panel, the students set to work on executing their vision. Their event would require models, sustainable clothing and a team of photographers to capture the evening; fortunately, all of the above could be found within the walls of the Fashion & Textiles Institute.

“We wanted our event to be really collaborative”, Grace told us. “There’s so much talent spread across the University, and we’re always encouraged to utilise that when it comes to our projects.

“For our clothes, we went to the fashion department to use end of line t-shirts from a bunch of first-year student projects. The third-year students also contributed some of their pre-collection work, which was fantastic.

“We did a couple of casting calls for our models and got responses from lots of different groups. In the end, we had students from the Pole society, Cheer society and a few Fashion students too. On top of that, students from Fashion Photography documented the event, so it really was a collective effort.”

Grace and her team didn’t stop at collaborating within the walls of the University – they also forged partnerships with local businesses to help raise money for charity. The group ran a raffle at their event, with all the proceeds heading to sustainable fashion charity Fashion Revolution.

A host of local businesses were happy to provide prizes for the raffle, free of charge. The Tate St Ives, the Falmouth Bookseller, Harbour Lights and Crystals Falmouth all generously donated products for the charitable cause.

“Thanks to the help of the local businesses, we were able to raise over £100 for Fashion Revolution”, Grace told us.

“We’re really pleased with how the event went, and we can’t wait to take what we’ve learnt at university into the live events industry.”

Course Leader Matt Kirby told us, “I’m so proud of our student project teams.

“Their events have surpassed my expectations and their creativity and planning has gone through such a steep learning curve; they are my live-event superheroes!

“It is such a good time to come and study events at Falmouth. As the sector begins to open its face-to-face events once again, the industry is going to need lots of new,  digitally savvy event managers, and I can’t wait to see who walks through our doors next.”
 

Find out more about Creative Events Management at Falmouth University