For those more interested in mesh than mosh (pits), there is the Port Eliot Festival. This year, the four-day celebration of fashion, literature, music, food, comedy and the outdoors gets an added sartorial boost with a new programme featuring exclusive designs by some of the most exciting fashion talents out there.
For the inaugural Wardrobe Department Shop, Sarah Mower, the British Fashion Council’s Ambassador for Emerging Talent, selected a group of emerging talents to showcase one-off pieces exclusively for the festival. Participating designers include Ellie Mac Embroidery, Daniel Fletcher, Sadie Williams, Claire Barrow, Rottingdean Bazaar, Matty Bovan and Ed Marler with donations from Comme des Garçons Good Design Shop, Katharine Hamnett for YMC and Marques’Almeida. While festival goers are assisted by kindly Paul Smith volunteers, they can feel good knowing their money will go to support the BFC Education Fund.
Below, a few of the participating designers tell us about the pieces they are contributing to the Wardrobe Department shop:
My mum, Plum Bovan, and I collaborated on pieces we would like to wear with a youthful summer idea running throughout. We made earrings, necklaces, key rings, and brooches! I have made accessories for my collections before but I feel like this is more wearable, more fun and more considered for people in the Port Eliot environment.
I wanted to make something special and tokenistic, a memento people could take away from the festival. I love the graphic simplicity of Amish quilts and have frequently looked to them for inspiration. So I combined this with my signature use of Lurex and heat-transfer printing to create these patches.
Barrow's teddies can be purchased online for £60.
I've created “adult” teddies, jewellery and drawstring gym bags for you to carry your bits around the festival safely, all inspired by British witchcraft and pagan rituals interpreted in my own way. I am also going to be selling them on my website so you won’t miss out if you can’t make it to the festival.
I went for things that would be useful for people who are at the festival. There are some of my school scarves for when it gets cold and some RENT caps on the off chance we get some sun. I have also designed an embroidery patch specifically for Port Eliot, which is reminiscent of a scout badge and can be purchased individually or with one of my classic wool jerseys.
I've designed a range of embroidered patches. It actually started out as part of a collaboration I'm doing with my friend, photographer Jo Thorne. We thought it would be interesting to lay my embroidery on her portraits and the Victorian botanicals sat really well with her work.
Port Eliot Festival is on from 28 to 31 July. Tickets and full festival information are available at porteliotfestival.com.