Organising a Fashion Show:
An introductory guide for Fundraising Groups
No matter what time of year, a fashion show can be a popular fundraising event. It can be a
relatively easy event to organise that can bring the whole community together to support Marie
Curie. If you have a Marie Curie shop in your local area, these events can also be a great way to
help generate interest, footfall and stock for the shop as well as raising vital funds.
If this is something you are considering, please read on to find out more. If you decide to go ahead,
your Community Fundraising can send you a more detailed guide, including templates to support
you with putting on a great event.
1. What is a charity fashion show?
A charity fashion show is a ticketed event where local businesses can showcase their items and
services to members of the community.
Models will showcase clothes that attendees may have the option to purchase at the end and local
services such as hairdressers could attend to give demonstrations.
If you have a local Marie Curie shop, they could provide the clothes for the Fashion Show and
could do a pop up shop. The shop may also have links to local businesses, so this would be a
great event for you both to work together.
How much can be raised?
Depending on the format of your Fashion Show, we would expect for it to raise approximately £750
- £1,000.
Last year, the Kirkcaldy Fundraising Group ran a Fashion Show with their local Marie Curie shop
which raised £1,000.
Attendees at the Kirkcaldy Fashion Show, February 2016
In 2016, the Oadby and Wigston Fundraising Group raised £965 and the Buxton and Chapel
Fundraising Group raised £834, both working with local boutiques for their events.
What type of group can organise a successful fashion show?
A group looking to hold a Fashion Show should ideally have good links with the local community to
work with businesses and to also be able to sell tickets.
2. How does the fundraising work?
There should be none or minimal costs involved with organising a fashion show, and therefore the
majority of income from the event will be a profit. Most of your income will come from ticket sales.
Groups have also held raffles or prize draws at the event to raise additional funds.
If you are inviting other businesses to attend (such as jewellery stalls, hairdressers, beauticians)
they may also contribute a donation from sales or a prize for the raffle.
3. Organising the event
1. Find suitable businesses to get involved
2. Find a venue / decide on a date
3. Source models
4. Publicise your event / sell tickets
How much time is required to organise this event?
We would recommend you start planning your event approximately 3-4 months in advance. This
will allow for plenty of time to find a venue and to promote to individuals.
Finding suitable businesses to get involved
If you have a Marie Curie shop in your local area we would recommend that you speak to them first
to see if they are interested to get involved. These conversations can also include discussions
about other businesses that may be interested to take part.
If you do not have a Marie Curie shop close to you, speak to local boutiques or clothes outlets that
may be happy to get involved. There are also organisations across the UK that run Fashion Shows
with end of season stock, who do not charge for the event but take the profit from sales. In both of
these instances, ticket sale income would still come to the charity.
Local colleges or Universities with fashion courses may also be interested to support to showcase
their work.
Selecting a date and time and venue
Fashions show can run at any time of year, but you may consider theming your fashion show. For
example, prior to Christmas for party outfits or gifts.
Fashion shows often take place in an evening.
Suitable venues would have space for a catwalk along with seats for attendees. You will also need
to consider a changing room for models. If a separate room is not available, a partition may be
suitable if models were comfortable with this. Venues that groups have previously used include
Church Halls, Hotels and Conservative Clubs.
Organising a Fashion Show: an introductory guide for Fundraising Groups Page 2 of 4
Source models
You will need a range of models to suit the clothing that is being showcased. This could be female,
male and children. You may also want to consider having a range of ages of the models.
You could ask volunteers from the shop or your fundraising activities or you could publicise it to the
local community. Friends and family may also be willing to help.
If you have a local hairdressers or beauticians attending they may be able to offer a free makeover
to the models.
Publicising the event / selling tickets
If you are working with your shop, they will be able to help promote the event. As with all
fundraising events, there will be templates that you can use for tickets, posters and leaflets to
promote the event, along with a Press Release template.
The size of the venue will impact on the number of tickets you can sell.
What happens next?
If you are interested in going ahead with organising a fashion show, your Community Fundraiser
can send you a more detailed document about how to go about it. This will help the group
determine the amount of input required to host an event, and the amount they can raise.
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