A cap sporting the word PARIS is pulled low over Jude’s face as he tells me that his favourite item of clothing is “his little hat collection”. I am not surprised. “I love novelty headgear,” he admits, “and just having fun with it.”
As President of this year’s Cambridge University Charity Fashion show (CUCFS), Jude’s love for having fun with what he wears is conducive to the light-hearted playfulness he wants to bring to the annual student-run show. He first got involved with the show in his second year as a model, an experience he describes as “liberating.” “I never really saw myself as a model beforehand,” he tells me, “but I found something very freeing about walking the runway and feeling model-esque.” An opportunity to participate in a creative student collaboration while simultaneously raising money for a good cause, his decision to go for President arose from a desire to bring the enjoyment he got out of the experience to other people in Cambridge.
This year’s charity is Beat Eating Disorders. “This is a charity that works directly with eating disorders, something that is such a big crisis in Cambridge within the student body.” He pauses. “I think crisis is definitely the right word.” Jude tells me that beyond the importance of addressing eating disorders within the student body, this felt like a crucial issue to highlight when working in fashion, “an industry that has a very historic and deep-rooted relationship with body image issues.”
"I want people to feel supported so that this can be an overwhelmingly positive experience for everyone involved"
The decision to choose a charity that works with mental health is no hollow commitment; this year, for the first time, CUCFS will be hiring a welfare team, a decision born from Jude’s previous experience in modelling. “I know it can feel vulnerable,’ he says, “and I want people to feel supported so that this can be an overwhelmingly positive experience for everyone involved.”
Though the theme is yet to be announced (expect to find it out at the start of Lent term), a number of stylistic influences can give us a clue what to expect. “I loved going to rock and indie music gigs and just absorbing what people were wearing,” Jude tells me, citing his upbringing near Manchester and Liverpool, which he describes as “the two big metropolises I would go to when I wanted to do something”. He credits these cities for introducing him to a world of indie and rock music hubs frequented by eclectic, interestingly dressed people, which in turn spurred his interest in fashion. “It was something I really wanted to draw inspiration from for the show, looking at how that rich musical tradition birthed the punk and disorderly influences that have permeated fashion.”
"An opportunity to participate in a creative student collaboration while simultaneously raising money for a good cause"
Jude hopes to return to the importance of the everyday in the fashion industry, which can get lost amidst a bigger-is-better style mentality often seen on high fashion catwalks. The aim is for the show to be more in line with the zeitgeist of contemporary fashion, much of which centres around street wear and blurs the line between high and low fashion, “two fluid concepts”, Jude points out. While he wants “big, amazing outfits”, the show will strive to include “the realities of the fashion industry at the moment which is street style.”
Modelling castings are incoming with over 100 sign ups, but this is a show that has the potential to extend beyond the student body. The goal is to reach out to faculty members after castings and ask them to participate in the student run show with the aim of helping raise money for charity. “I’m a massive fan of age diverse casting,” he explains. “Involving faculty members would be a great way to bring some variety to the show, while giving it a fun sense of novelty. People would be able to say, ‘my supervisor is walking in the fashion show’.”
