Fabulous Fittie Fashion Fest brings a summer splash of colour
Over the past few weeks, we’ve seen loads of colourful social media posts about the upcoming Fabulous Fittie Fashion Fest. So, intrigued, we got in touch with organiser Laura Mears-Reynolds. It’s great to see new events happening in the city. We wanted to find out what she had planned, and a little about her background too.
The event is a unique festival-themed shopping experience in Fittie Community Hall. The newly renovated hall located near Pocra Quay and New Pier Road. It takes place on Saturday 20 August.
What can people expect as they arrive at Fabulous Fittie Fashion Fest?
On arrival, you will see that the Open Road team and I have gone to town decorating the beautiful, newly renovated Fittie Community Hall with festival and Ibiza vibes. You can expect bright colours, disco balls and a sequin wall supplied by Lombardi Events to compliment the stalls of our Aberdeen Creatives.
We are showcasing my own work, HATHOR, Wardrobe Foxes Vintage, Prolong and Aubin. And to top it all we have the incredible Rhiannon giving tarot readings. All this to the backdrop of classic house and disco beats from local DJ Angela Michael. We’re a local creative girl gang joining forces to champion local creatives, raise awareness about ADHD, and boycott fast fashion!
What inspired you to host this carnival of couture?
I’d been trading at festivals such as The Secret Garden Party and events in Ibiza for a decade when the pandemic hit. Lockdown ruined everyone’s plans and completely halted every aspect of my industry. I plummeted into a mental health crisis. This resulted in discovering I’d been battling through life, like so many women, with undiagnosed ADHD. Post diagnosis and treatment, I felt stronger just as the world reopened.
Having been amazed by Zandra Rhodes’ exhibition at Aberdeen Art Gallery, I serendipitously bumped into her on my Fittie doorstep and felt inspired to carry on Zandra’s Aberdeen fashion mission.
Why did you choose Fittie Community Hall as your venue?
What better place than the colourful and creative village of my chance meeting with the iconic Dame Zandra Rhodes? She loved Fittie so much!
You chose to raise funds for ADHD Adult UK after your diagnosis. How have they helped you and other adults who have been diagnosed with ADHD?
Dr James Brown and Dr Alex Conner have greatly supported my late ADHD diagnosis journey. Having both been through the same, they offer information about the disability and diagnosis online:
https://www.adhdadult.uk – via their peer support group for adults with ADHD and invaluable knowledge via their podcast: The ADHD Adults Podcast; which was the inspiration for the one I created with my neighbour Dawn Farmer.
Your podcast has gathered a bit of a following of its own. Tell us all about it and where people can find it.
Dawn and I moved to the same street, at the same time, at the same age, with the same undiagnosed disability, what are the chances?! After the shocking discovery that we had both been battling through life with brain disorders, we were further horrified to discover just how common an occurrence this is! Many women go mis or undiagnosed, and if missed in childhood the average age for a woman is 36-38!
We decided to use our voices to raise awareness, break the stigma and share our personal experiences in the hope that they help others… and we’ve achieved exactly that. Daily we receive messages from listeners all over the world on our Instagram telling us we’ve helped those in desperate need seek diagnosis, treatment, help in the workplace, at university and to feel validated and less alone.
Unbelievably in just three months since launch, we’ve hit 30K downloads and #31 in Spotify’s Top 50 Podcast Chart for Society & Culture GB and #28 in Australia! We can’t believe it!
Do you have plans to hold more events in the future?
I hope that visitors love mine and Open Road’s efforts to create this unique shopping experience, enabling us to put on more events in the future, so fingers crossed!
Remind us when and where Fabulous Fittie Fashion Fest takes place.
Fittie Community Hall on New Pier Road (NOT to be confused with the Mission Hall in the Squares!) Saturday 20th August 11 am-3 pm. It’s a FREE entry event, though we would love any donations to ADHDadultUK on the day. We are unable to take cash payments, so please remember your bank card.
We have upcycled hedonistic headwear and festival accessories, vintage clothing, one-off bags handmade from trash, and jewellery made from sea glass and discarded objects found on Aberdeen Beach.
On top of that, you don’t want to miss the raffle! Each creative has donated an item and local businesses have also donated; including a £50 voucher for The Silver Darling Restaurant! It’s a seriously fabulous raffle with all proceeds donated to ADHDadultUK and The Fittie Community Development Trust.
And where can people keep in touch with you on social media?
Follow us on Instagram and join the event page on Facebook.
Events Calendar
Check out The Fabulous Fittie Fashion Fest on Aberdeen EventsFind more events and activities in the Aberdeen Events Calendar
About POST
Kevin Mitchell and Chris Sansbury founded POST. This was from a desire to cut through the noise to share the great things that happen in Aberdeen. They focus on community, culture and also the interesting people of the city. The local artists, businesses and charities; photographers, musicians and entertainers. These are the people that make a positive impact on our city every day. So they use video, audio, writing and social media to amplify the voices in our community. And to ultimately give a platform to Aberdeen folk to engage and tell their own stories.
Recent work includes coverage of Spectra 2023, interviews with We Are Here Scotland founder Ica Headlam; Paralympic gold medalist, Neil Fachie; Aberdeen rapper Chef and his push for success; an article about the pedestrianisation of Union Street; coverage of Nuart Aberdeen and TEDx Aberdeen, as well as coverage of the campaign to Save the Belmont.
We are independent and entirely self funded. We just about cover our costs, but if you would like to help support our work, you could buy us a coffee.
