Stanningley: Indy Boutique Fashion Show Supports Will’s Way Charity | Shipping from West Leeds

Words: James Corah

Photos: Simon Cullingworth

Communities are the sum of its parts; communities work best when they are inclusive and support each other and their composite organizations.

Stanningleys Leeds clothing successfully organized a fashion show Wills way, one of the many events that took place in the west of Leeds and in Yorkshire before the coronavirus settled.

The spring fashion show highlighted the appeal of the clothes and tickets to the event with a glamorous raffle raised 965 for Wills Way.

Wills Way was created by a 15-year-old boy who played for Stanningley RL to support children with brain tumors in West Yorkshire and within the rugby league community.

Dawn Farr, owner of Apparel Leeds, said

I think her testimony to the fabulous local community we have is that so many people wanted to support the wonderful work of Lisa and Ty with everyone at Wills Way.

The community is an integral part of the Dawns business, which is located at 147a Town Street, Stanningley. Originally from Farsley, Dawn traveled extensively before launching her boutique, having worked in the diplomatic service for almost thirty years.

Originally written off as a six-month thing by friends and family, Dawn joined the diplomatic service in 1989 and has traveled the world.

Dawn really enjoyed the work even when she visited the prisons and had many strange and wonderful experiences.

In addition to her regular work, she has been invited to major international sporting events.

Her appreciation of the sport meant that she was well placed to sit regularly for the Ambassador, including a lunch with the chairman of Tottenham Hotspur, a dinner with the Lisbon Lions of Glasgow Celtic and pre-Cup training events world with the England men’s football team. Heaven for a crazy football fan!

But it was a very fleeting life made difficult by the impossibility of taking root. Dawn loved this job, even though it had a detrimental effect on her health, and each break from work became more difficult to complete.

Dawn therefore took a break from her career, initially a year to get better, and she tried various activities to find something that fascinated her. Despite his interest in the sport, it was difficult to get started as a career.

Ultimately, this resolved with a comment from a friend: you should tell people what to wear.

It appealed to Dawn, she loved fashion, had traveled the world to know what to wear and when, she knew it was something she could turn her hand to.

It was a success for Dawn:

Penniless, but happy and healthy.

It took six weeks to set up, with a trip to a fashion show to get supplies. Dawn had a plan from the start, she wanted to provide a refreshing alternative to the main street offering women’s clothing, shoes and accessories for contemporary women.

These would be affordable and of high quality, ideally from six local designers of jewelry, clothing and accessories.

Dawn made the decision to provide exclusivity to her customers, eight items per line. The desired effect would be that, rather than everyone getting the same top from the main street store, the clothing customers would be unique.

Thanks to Apparel Dawn now offers free personalized hairstyling services, as well as 10 for 10 exclusive shopping sessions with prosecco.

Dawn said support in the community is still essential for small businesses, but especially now.

Aside from the communities in west Leeds, Dawn has won support from two groups of women’s business networks. Events like the Spring Fashion Show are helping to energize the community in Stanningley and Farsley and west Leeds. For Dawn, it was a

A great effort from everyone involved, who were all volunteers and gave their time to participate.

Hair and makeup for the event was donated to students at the University of Leeds, and raffle prizes were donated by local businesses. Dawn added that 7 stops – in Chapeltown, Pudsey – hosted the event for free.