The Future Is Most Curious: Thoughts + Feelings After ‘A Most Curious Wedding Fair’, 2019 (The most inclusive and body diverse wedding show in the UK)

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This past week has been insanely good. More has happened in the past 7 days to reinforce my passion, energy and love for this wedding industry than has in a long time.

It started with two days spent with the Luxe Bride team and their boutique owning members, delivering 1:1 training and discussion sessions at their second ever Digital School – during which we discussed, amongst other things, the future of digital media and it’s role in the wedding industry. And it ended with an incredible trip to London this past weekend to visit and help support the Most Curious Wedding Fair. And what a damn fine show it was. I have never attended such an event and left feeling all my hairs stand on end with excitement – literally.

I’ve been supporting this event for several years now and have watched it grow into the most incredible, influential and inspiring entity it is today. This event is ‘family’, it is ‘community’, it is the manifestation of deep levels of love and respect shared across exhibitors and between the show organisers and many businesses they support.

Having witnessed the sheer melting pot of creativity and showcase of wedding supplier excellence at this past weekend’s show, I am literally full to bursting with awe for the team behind this event and the ACTUAL FUCKING FANTASTIC British wedding industry. I need to get a bit sweary – sometimes it’s good to help you articulate the passion and fire you have inside, you know?

I want to make the biggest public declaration of love for the Most Curious team today, and I want to do this through amplifying the voices of the team themselves. Over to you, you bloody brilliant lot….

Images by Carla Blain Photography

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Becky Hoh-Hale

Most Curious Founder (and Industry Visionary)

I’m sat here, with a Pret coffee, the baby asleep and just trying to process what the heck just happened this weekend.

Firstly, a personal account of the show, which we feel fitting to share on Love My Dress as she has literally been with us on every step of the way of this journey. And with any grass roots brand, or creative based company, it is interwoven with the people behind it, it is their story, their heart and life’s work as much as anything else.

We’ll let you into a fairly badly kept secret; last years show was a battle from start to finish. It was a great show, exhibitors were talking about it this weekend and what a good time they had and how successful it had been for them. But to us, and those close to the brand who had exhibited prior to last year, there was an energy. A strange energy, or cloud that hung over the event. Going through the motions at best and plagued by disaster and sadness at every step, at worst. Maybe it was the blizzard (remember The Beast From The East?) that raged outside, stopping some exhibitors and probably a number of visitors getting there, or the snow that turned our big plans for a separate catwalk room basically into a freezer.

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Maybe it was the snow that stopped the integral member of our small and highly tight knit team, Cat, getting to the venue from Ireland until day two, or the temperatures that probably caused the mysterious pipe-burst flooding incident that we discovered when walking/wading into our venue first thing Saturday morning. Maybe it was our grief at the stillbirth I had suffered eleven months before of the baby girl I was expecting at the previous show – and the fact I was pregnant again and just generally terrified and exhausted and nauseous and too scared to lift anything or run anywhere (which if you saw us at the show this weekend, you’d be aware really is a problem!).

But this year, as was said by many people separately to us, we got our sparkle back.

Whatever it was, this year, there was definitely magic in the air, a triumphant return. (Becky, Most Curious Founder)

Maybe it was the hard graft we’d put in for months to make it happen, maybe it was the fucking FANTASTIC exhibitor crew we had this year, the disco tunes, the brilliant styling collaborations, luck, weather, great press strategy and response, an exciting moment in the industry and with brides, evolving once again to new levels of freedom and creativity.

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Whatever it was, this year, there was definitely magic in the air, a triumphant return. And within our team, we like to think we know why – it is baby Sonny.

Through the darkness of grief, infertility, miscarriage and still brith, he is the ray of sunshine that has burst into my life, and in turn, into the lives of all the people that love me and love him. Sonny – you’ve given us our sparkle back. Thank you, you special little cub.

We’re still riding a high of the unique space Most Curious has created within the industry, a space of support, community, synchronicity, solidarity and friendship. (Becky, Most Curious Founder)

And of course, that little girl shining down on us from the wings too, that gave us a double rainbow across the East London skies the day before the show – our beautiful Xian Hui.

But let’s talk about the show itself! There’s plenty of feels there without having to bring my personal life into it!

That’s what you get, I guess, when every brand we hand pick to be there is truly passionate and believes in their work and approach. There’s no need for snidey competitiveness, if you are unique on your own path then how can you feel threatened? Innovation is key to all our makers and suppliers and that makes room for them all in our wedding world. Copycats need not apply.

It must also be said that we have made a fairly women-centric arena, a space where women don’t have to feel weird about being pregnant, breastfeeding their baby, seeing to their toddler, moan about the work/life balance juggle, show up a little late for their loading in schedule because they had do a double nursery/school run before arriving, while at the show.

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We’ll be honest – this was not necessarily a conscious decision, the wedding industry just happens to be full of incredible women making their own careers that also allows them to have a family and not feel like they will be discriminated against because they are at a stage in their lives where they are also having babies. An important acknowledgement to make, we all feel, on the first day of International Women’s Week. Having said that, we really do have the nicest blokes exhibiting as well, pretty much always also sharing the freelance parenting juggle themselves too, with that special kind of weariness and understanding of the game.

But that’s another exhausted tangent!

The ACTUAL show? 😉 Well, I think that is kind of the point. It’s the people and their stories that make it. The insane amount of talent and pioneering spirit sure, but it’s the people that make it. Most Curious has become more than a wedding show. This thing of ours has turned into a real showcase of the best designer makers in the UK who’s work just happens to apply to the wedding world, launching new collections, new products, new services and new ideas. It’s become the destination and calendar date to try out your bravest creation, your boldest move. And the people that come to the show are people that connect with that.

We carved the niche and people have snuggled right in. In the words of Kevin Costner (or was it Wayne Campbell from Wayne’s World?); ‘if you build it, they will come’.

And come they did.

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Cat Brennan

Event Co-ordinator, Head of Production + Exhibitor Liaison

I think what stands out for me personally is the sense of family and community and support that is at the heart of Most Curious – the amazing bond I have with Becky, Ellie and Ann-Marie, the joy in bringing together all these amazingly creative and passionate makers and designers and doers, who also happen to be the loveliest people too – and the privilege of playing a small part in making this magic happen. And it really did feel especially magical this year.

Luke Reene, our catwalk stylist, also really knocked it out of the park this year. I mean, I’ve always loved the fashion shows but he just seems to get better year on year and the elements he brought to the fashion show this year, like the amazing Alice Jane Potter outfits and the way he styled the dresses and the inclusion of larger sized models, it took it to another level for us all.

I know I’m probably overusing the word but it really was magical! Luke had the support of an amazing team too, Vicky Kear came on board last year as our stage manager and we were so happy to have her back again this year, she is brilliant at what she does and another lovely person too.

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Ann Marie Faulkner

Production + Styling Assistant

I’d like to tell my story from an exhibitors point of view as well as a team member; I first exhibited at most curious back in 2015 with my debut bridal collection, not really knowing what to expect. I ended up as a runner up in the ‘Bridal Next’ award and was completely blown away by the attention and love my weird little collection got. I ended up working on a few collabs with show founder Becky after that experience, and we became firm friends.

I’ve exhibited every year since as it really supports my business throughout the whole year and I find so many clients through it. It is such an incredible thing to be involved in.

It was in 2017 that Becky asked me to join the team and I was unsure at the time, however, I’m so glad I did as I feel so at home now. I was struggling with postnatal depression at the time so didn’t really know what the hell I was doing! Becky and cat were so supportive and just gave me little bits and pieces to do and told me to do whatever I could manage. It made me feel like me and again I genuinely believe it lifted me out of that confusing postpartum fog. I am so grateful to them for that. Since then the show has progressed so much and I feel so proud to have been a part of that, always pushing forward and trying to improve and innovate each year.

That is the magic of most curious really – Becky has created a place that ultimately is about promoting your business, however, doesn’t make you feel embarrassed or apologetic for putting your family first as so many women running their own businesses do. It is all inclusive – before that even became fashionable- because the team are all so completely different it just the norm!

I’m still in the Most Curious post-show haze, I think we worked 45 hours in the last 3 days?! So maybe this doesn’t make sense, but I’m feeling all the love right now.

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Luke Reene

Stylist (who worked tirelessly to make the catwalk inclusive and body diverse)

I think we all know that there are issues with diversity and inclusion in most if not all aspects of life, but it is especially prevalent in the fashion industry and unfortunately it also casts a big shadow over the bridal industry. Artistry and construction partnered with fabric costs and rising studio space, pattern making costs and paying fair wages across the board make the creation of sample dresses in a variety of sizes a minefield.

Body diversity is a spectrum, but it is an all inclusive, all encompassing spectrum.  It isn’t about a size, it is about a fit and there is a fit for everybody – and it needs to be easier to find it. (Luke Reene)

It really clicked for me at a show last year when a designer told me that they only wanted ‘editorial’ girls in their pieces, as size 4. Furious with myself for not responding in the way I wanted in that moment, I instead vented about body diversity to the model I was dressing who happened to be the only one who could fit this designers pieces. By venting my frustration about the lack of body diversity in this industry to her I was inadvertently casting her as an other or less valid of being included in a conversation about body diversity because she wasn’t a larger than sample size. Body diversity is a spectrum, but it is an all inclusive all encompassing spectrum.

Booking models for a body diverse catwalk is a chicken or the egg type of situation, where do you start? Do you look for and fall in love with the look of a model, plan her into your shows and then go to designers and hope that there are the odd piece or two that you can fit them for, or do you go to the designers first and have their availability dictate the models you book? I went for the former, maybe because I’m a gluten for punishment or maybe because I fell in love with the look of the models I eventually booked.

Is it hard to find pieces above a size 10? Yes. Is it difficult to find pieces for shorter models? Yes. Is it possible? Absolutely, but it is a work in progress. As a stylist I don’t want body diversity for the sake of it, I don’t want some shallow promise of diverse sizing which is then vetoed by a social media manager who will only promote sample size models wearing the pieces of a collection dedicated to sizing diversity.

I appreciate I say all this through the viewpoint of a man who doesn’t go through the same insane body expectations women are bombarded with all day everyday. I haven’t been told from childhood that my wedding day will be the happiest of my life, or have the pressure of trying to find the perfect dress only to not have the instant availability of my size to begin the fitting process. But I dress women, I love dressing women and I want the women I dress to be comfortable in the pieces I put them in, to feel strong, empowered and above all else beautiful.

It isn’t about a size, it is about a fit and there is a fit for everybody – and it needs to be easier to find it.

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Ellie Kime

Aka, The Wedding Enthusiast, AKA, A Most Curious Wedding Fair Event and PR Assistant

I’m a copywriter by trade but words totally fail me when it comes to describing Most Curious when it’s all done and dusted (and yes, this year, ‘sanded’). The weekend is a meeting of the industry’s best minds and the country’s (fuck it, the world’s!) best couples. To say it’s a machine would do it no justice because it’s more of a movement, a swell of love and excitement and hope and bloody loads of great aesthetics, but it is ‘machine-like’, in the fact that every single part of it has to be there in order for it to work.

A genius styling mind, Becky, behind it all, insanely talented suppliers who are always giving their all for couples, couples who are ready to push the boundaries of the expected and the unexpected to celebrate the rest of their lives, Luke, Vicky and the catwalk team for putting on a SHOW – it’s totally unlike any other.

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___________

FEEL. THE. LOVE.

Further images from the other amazing creative photographers and videographers present at Most Curious 2019 event will follow later this week. As will more thoughts and words from those involved. That is, once they’ve climbed back down to planet earth from the lofty heights of celebration.  And this is so important, because this event is truly pushing forward this industry into exciting, innovative, evolutionary times.

The future is absolutely Most Curious my friends.

Let us know if you were there, we’d LOVE to hear your views.

Love Annabel x

Credits & Thanks

Annabel

Annabel View all Annabel's articles

Founder of Love My Dress. Passionate Podcaster and Editor. Annabel lives in rural North Yorkshire with her husband and business partner Philip, their two daughters and menagerie of furry hounds. She loves photography, meditation, walking, being outdoors and star gazing. She is fierce when it comes to championing talent within the wedding industry and when she's not working on Love My Dress, she supports her husband Philip in the running of the family's sustainable flower farm and floral design business, Moonwind Flowers. In 2013, she became a published author.

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