Bath will once again become the centre of the fashion world this weekend as the latest Bath in Fashion festival gets underway.
Now in its sixth year, the innovative nine-day festival has become a global event, attracting top-name speakers, designers and journalists from the top of the fashion industry.
The number of events staged during the festival have increased year on year. Bath in Fashion 2014 hosted 36 events – ranging from catwalk shows to talks and advice sessions – which attracted more than 2,500 paying visitors. 
This year there will be 42 events supported by 150 businesses.
While Bath has been a magnet for fashionable visitors since Georgian times, Bath in Fashion today strengthens its role as a honeypot for fashionable brands.
Over the past year it has attracted cool brands seldom found outside London such as Anthropologie, Cutler and Gross and Brissi and Hay on Milsom Street.
Bath in Fashion is funded and managed by Bath Business Improvement District (BID) in partnership with the city’s marketing organisation Bath Tourism Plus.
BID chief executive Andrew Cooper said: “Bath in Fashion is fast becoming one of the most talked-about fashion gatherings outside London. When we launched it, we decided that we would like to hold a fashion event that is different from any other.
“It has become a well-established event in the city’s calendar of festivals. It draws businesses together to create a showcase of our fashionable credentials against a backdrop that is unrivalled in the south west.”
This year’s programme includes the spring/summer ‘15 catwalk show in the Assembly Rooms in partnership with Specsavers, while independent jeweller Nicholas Wylde is lending his creative flair to sponsor the Designer Show.
Many other elements reflect the diversity of the city – workshops, talks, exhibitions and installations so expect the unexpected.
Renowned tattoo artist Mo Coppoletta, who has designed fabrics for Liberty as well as inking Paloma Faith, will tell his incredible story at an event sponsored by law firm Thrings.
The Royal School of Needlework, in collaboration with the Royal High School, Bath, will talk about their commissions for the fashion world and will be running a workshop in Anthropologie.
World famous fashion blogger, Susie Lau is among the high profile guests from the world of fashion. Exhibitions range Dress of the Year at the Fashion Museum to Hatched, Matched, Dispatched and Patched at the American Museum in Britain displaying exquisite and historic textile treasures that have been created to mark family milestones to fashion illustration at David Simon Contemporary.
Headliners this year include Anna Sui from New York, Holly Fulton in conversation with Vogue’s Jessica Bumpus and Roksanda Ilnincic in conversation with head of fashion at Sunday Times Style, Claudia Croft.
Claudia wrote last year; “When it comes to regional fashion weeks… Bath in Fashion is in a league of its own”.
The Bath in Fashion 2015 programme features un-missable talks, catwalk shows, hands-on knitting and jewellery workshops, fashion films, a vintage fashion fair, historic exhibitions and a community charity crochet project in aid of Kids Company.
This year the lead sponsorship comes from House of Fraser with a partnership with one of Europe’s oldest department stores, Jolly’s to celebrate the store’s re-launch after a major refurbishment. Jaeger is sponsoring a series of high-profile talks with creative director Sheila McCain-Waid talking about a new trajectory for the brand.
Retail brands that are getting behind the event range from Gieves and Hawkes to The White Company whose creative director Mark Winstanley talks to Greg Ingham, chair of Creative Bath, to Hobbs, Cutler and Gross and Pandora.
