Two St Albans mums held a fashion show of re-purposed charity shop clothes to raise money to help refugees.
The fashion show, organised by Sarah Gerrard-Jones and Eliza Lau-Johnston, was held at Kingsbury Barn and attended by more than 100 people.
All the clothing was sourced from charity shops, with proceeds from tickets going towards Help Refugees, and models showcased 20 outfits made from charity shop clothes.
Sarah and Eliza initially met through their daughters, who are both named Eva, and bonded through their shared love of clothes.
They advertised for models for the event through the Herts Ad and by approaching people in the street.
Eliza said: “I wanted a really diverse group of girls, with different races, ages and sizes - that was really important to me. I had a certain image in my head. If I saw someone shopping or on the street I would go up to them, and lots of people got in touch after the Herts Ad article.”
Eliza and Sarah set up an Instagram account to document their outfit creations at @twenty_outfits
The event raised just under £1,300 through ticket sales and an additional £1,000 through a silent auction and selling the leftover charity shop clothes, bringing the total up to around £2,300 - far exceeding their initial £1,500 target.
Speaking about when she and Sarah had the idea for the fashion show, Eliza said: “I think it was back in March when we had the really cold spell and there was snow.
“An image popped up on my Facebook feed showing how people had been sleeping in tents in Calais. That just sealed it for me and I wanted to raise money for refugees.
“We were promoting Help Refugees’s ‘Choose Love’ campaign. It’s all about treating everyone with dignity.”
Before the models came out in their outfits, Sarah and Eliza showed the guests a short video from Helf Refugees, showing what the charity does.
Eliza said: “We’ll definitely do another show or a mini event in the autumn. We really created a little community with our models and with our make-up artists.
“We didn’t want to say goodbye to everyone - it was a really good experience.”
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