LITTLE FASHION WEEK - world's smallest catwalk

Toy range Harumika and high street brand, River Island combine to create a fashion first - the World's Smallest Catwalk!

Created by arts and crafts design range, Harumika, the catwalk featured 10 outfits modelled on 21cm high and 4cm wide mannequins, on a one metre long rotating runway.

The models compare to the average London Fashion Week model statistics of 5'8" - 5'11" models and come in at an eighth of the average 5'11" model.

The catwalk showcased the upcoming looks from River Island's autumn / winter '12 Chelsea Girl collection, in an innovative way designed to appeal to playful yet fashion conscious girls ahead of the festive party season; who aren't afraid to have fun with their style.

Taking inspiration from heritage brands and emerging young designers such as Burberry, Mulberry, Mary Katrantzou and Peter Pilotto; the miniature mannequin clothing collection was commissioned by Harumika who after a series of interviews of young design talent, employed 22 year old fashion designer, Christina Ruby Walton.

River Island Chelsea Girl AW12

Above outfits in miniature

Under the guidance of the Chelsea Girl Design team, Christina created the 10 outfits in two weeks, using the same intricate designs, fabrics and colourways of the full sized collection - featuring the same fluffy jumpers, mad faux fur coats, tapestry bombers and crochet lace maxi skirts.

The collection has been created in miniature detail with no items being off limits including the silver sequinned satchel and tortoise shell bag allowing the 10 mannequins to strut their stuff on the mini catwalk.

www.harumika.com

www.riverisland.com/women/brands/chelsea-girl

Harumika Product Manager, Vicki Elmer, comments:
"Harumika is a great product for encouraging young girls' creativity as it allows them to imagine and craft their own fashion designs with ease. We are forever seeing the talent that the youth of the UK brings to different industries, so we're excited to see the series of bespoke couture designs that young budding fashionistas can create."

Chelsea Girl Senior Designer, Lucy Moller, comments:
"Chelsea Girl is a quirky, fun and youthful brand, so the opportunity to create a playful fashion first with Harumika was a perfect fit. We're overwhelmed with the skill that Christina has used to miniaturise our designs so accurately, creating a truly innovative way of displaying our new collection."

Stictly come Dancing Fever Hits the Toy World

Queens of the ballroom Alesha Dixon and Alex Jones have tied in a poll on the best ever Strictly Come Dancing costume.New research out by girls' fashion design toy Harumika showed that UK females voted the beautiful peach Waltz dress worn by 2007 winner Alesha in the series finale and Alex Jones' white Halloween Paso Doble costume, worn in week five of the current series, as the best ever Strictly outfits.

The Strictly outfits voted in the top ten were:

1. Alesha Dixon's Waltz peach dress worn in the 2007 finale (10 per cent)
2. Alex Jones' white Paso Doble dress from the Dracula story worn in the Halloween special this series (10 per cent)
3. Kara Tointon's sparkly peach dress she danced the American Smooth to in 2010 series Final (9 per cent)
4. Michelle Williams' pink ball gown she wore in show six in 2010 (8 per cent)
5. Jo Wood's sequinned ball gown for the Strictly promotional pictures in the 2009 series (7 per cent)
6. Rachel Stevens' turquoise dress for the Strictly promotional pictures in series six (7 per cent)
7. Ola Jordan, purple animal print number she danced the Foxtrot to in 2009 (6 per cent)
8. Holly Valance's gold short Cha Cha Cha dress she wore in the first episode of the current series (6 per cent)
9. Christine Bleakley's pink ballgown she danced the Waltz to in 2008 (6 per cent)
10. Flavia Cacace's purple gown she danced the Tango to with Russell Grant in this year's series (4 per cent)

Now a budding designer and graduate from Chelsea College of Art and Design, Beth Parry has recreated the top ten Strictly outfits on a girls' fashion toy by crafting the stunning dresses on mini mannequins.
The designs were made using the new Harumika Evening Gown Set, which has been a hit with fashion students as well as young girls designing their own ball gowns and party dresses.
www.harumika.com

Images provided by Mischief PR