Fashion students team up with local charity

March 18, 2019 by Leigh-on-sea.com

South Essex College fashion students are collaborating with a local charity for their Summer Campaign and highlight the quality of clothes that can be found in charity shops.

South Essex College students have joined forces with Havens Hospices for the second year in a row as part of their BA (Hons) Fashion Communication degree. The group joined staff at some of the charity’s shops and selected a variety of items to be used as part of their project.

On Monday 25th March, Havens Hospices will launch the shops’ summer stock using images taken by the fashion student for their summer campaign. The charity, which includes Fair Havens Hospice, Little Havens Hospice and The J’s Hospice, will also be launching their Snapchat channel to coincide with the Summer Launch. They have created a special Geofilter to cover South Essex College and High Street in Southend on the 25^th March and will be encouraging students from the university and shoppers to share their charity shop finds by using the filter or by tagging them and adding the hashtag #havenshopfinds or alternatively shoppers can share their finds with the Havens Hospices Shops on Instagram; the charity can also be found on Facebook and Twitter.

Trevor Johnson, CEO of Havens Hospices Trading Company said “We’re all very excited about the collaboration between our charity shops and the fashion department at South Essex College to launch our summer stock.  The young ladies and gentlemen studying fashion have really demonstrated that you don’t have to spend a lot to create distinctive magazine worthy outfits that are on trend with the High Street.

“Here at Havens Hospices we’ve always prided ourselves on the quality of our stock, we are incredibly lucky that our amazing supporters donate high end clothing items for us to sell. We are also now stocking new goods including handbags and accessories that change seasonally so our customers can always be on trend. This collaborative campaign aims to breakdown misconceptions about charity shop fashion and highlights the quality you can expect when visiting one of our shops.

“I’d like to thank the students and their lecturers for their time and their efforts on this campaign; I hope the students’ keen eyes for fashion will inspire more people to start shopping in their local Havens shops - we’re all looking forward to seeing the outfits that our customers create following the summer launch.”

Sherry Ellis, fashion tutor at South Essex College said: “It’s great for the students to be able to work on a live project such as this, they enjoyed the challenge of creating a summer themed shoot in the middle of winter!

“They have loved sourcing and styling the clothes and were impressed with the quality of garments available. Ethical and sustainable fashion is an important element of the courses we deliver so the students have been keen to support and promote the idea of reusing and repurposing while supporting a fantastic cause.”

Havens Hospices has 23 shops that cover predominately South and Mid-Essex. The shops help raise vital funds so that the charity can be there when a family is told there is no cure for their love one’s illness and help make the journey as comfortable as possible, controlling pain and medication, offering respite and caring for adults, babies, children and teenagers at the end of their lives.

The charity can only exist because of the kindness and generosity of their supporters who raise money,  give their time as volunteers and donate saleable goods to our shops – for more information on where your local Havens Hospices’ shop is and how you can support it please visit www.havenshospices.org.uk/charityshops

For more information about fashion courses available at the College, visit www.southessex.ac.uk