Swatch Alternative Fashion Week
The Old Truman Brewery,  Brick Lane,  E1 6QL
14th March 2005 until 18th March 2005
Telephone: 020 7247 5980
 
Location Map of Swatch Alternative Fashion Week
 
Shoreditch is renowned as a Bermuda Triangle of silly, silly styles, and the original home of the extravagant mullet, so it is a fitting venue for Alternative Fashion Week. It's great fun, featuring lots of outfits too outlandish even for Milan, as well as a good number of designers whose clothes are not only suitable for real life, but also affordable. There's an impressively varied fashion market, and London's aspiring models show up en masse to try and get scouted, which makes it great for people-watching.

In a slightly depressing development, the event is moving from Old Spitalfields Market to the Truman Brewery, spiritual home of London's trendy twenty-something clones. A gradual creep away from its subversive values can also be seen in prominent sponsorship from terminally unfashionable Euro-accessory Swatch.

Still, the designers are young and bright, the models are quirky and beautiful, and the ideas and themes of this indie crowd will take years to filter through to the mainstream. If you enjoy fashion and want to stay ahead of the pack, this event is ideal and certainly streets ahead of the stale media circus that is the London Fashion Week.
 
Visiting Swatch Alternative Fashion Week
 
 
Opening Times
Catwalk shows13:15 daily. Fashion market 12:00-15:00.
 
Ticket Prices
Free
 
Travel
 
Underground Stations
Shoreditch Tube (CLOSED) (4 minutes)
Aldgate East Tube (9 minutes)
Railway Stations
Liverpool Street Railway Station (11 minutes)
Bethnal Green Railway Station (13 minutes)
 
 
 
Car Parking
 
Spitalfields Car Park (5 minutes)
Great Eastern Street NCP (9 minutes)
 
 
Local Event Near Swatch Alternative Fashion Week
 
 
London Event
Dennis Severs' House Tours
Dennis Severs' House, 18 Folgate Street,  E1
5 minutes distance from Swatch Alternative Fashion Week
A guided tour of Dennis Severs' House is one of the must-see attractions of hidden London. The living museum, the brainchild of eccentric designer and ...More...
 
London Event
Dennis Severs' House: Silent Night
Dennis Severs' House, 18 Folgate Street,  E1
5 minutes distance from Swatch Alternative Fashion Week
The atmospheric Silent Night candle-lit tours of Dennis Severs' House are particularly fun at this time of year. The house was created by Dennis Severs ...More...
 
 
Local Hotels Near Swatch Alternative Fashion Week
 
 
London Hotels
196 Bishopsgate
196 Bishopsgate, London,  EC2M
9 minutes distance from Swatch Alternative Fashion Week
...More...
 
London Hotels
Crowne Plaza London Shoreditch
100 Shoreditch High Street, London,  E1
9 minutes distance from Swatch Alternative Fashion Week
Shoreditch is a great spot for going out with Old Street a hive of late night activity. It also happens to be next to the ...More...
 
 
Local Sights and Attractions Near Swatch Alternative Fashion Week
 
 
London Sights and Attractions
Christ Church Spitalfields
Commercial Street, Shoreditch,  London,  E1
3 minutes distance from Swatch Alternative Fashion Week
Built in 1729, Nicholas Hawksmoor's Christ Church creation was declared dangerous and closed in 1956. Vigorous campaigning, from the poet Sir John Betjeman among others, ...More...
 
London Sights and Attractions
Brick Lane
Brick Lane, Shoreditch,  London,  E1
4 minutes distance from Swatch Alternative Fashion Week
London's own "Curry Mile", Brick Lane is home to so much more than first-rate spiced food, it also plays host to Jewish bagel shops, Indian ...More...
 
 
Local Shopping Near Swatch Alternative Fashion Week
 
 
London Shopping
Sunday (UP) Market at the Old Truman Brewery
91 Brick Lane, Shoreditch,  London,  E1
0 minutes distance from Swatch Alternative Fashion Week
For all you fashion and flavour-istas out there, here's another stop-off on your list. This market is a treasure trove of jewellery, vintage clothes, handbags, ...More...
 
London Shopping
A Butcher of Distinction
11 Dray Walk, The Old Truman Brewery, Shoreditch,  London,  E1
0 minutes distance from Swatch Alternative Fashion Week
Preppy, smart-casual menswear with an retro edge. Meat hooks, cleavers, and butchers’ blocks aren’t normally what you expect to see in a menswear shop, ...More...
 
 
Local Dining Near Swatch Alternative Fashion Week
 
 
London Dining
Story Deli
3 Dray Walk, Truman Brewery, Shoreditch,  London,  E1
0 minutes distance from Swatch Alternative Fashion Week
Shabby chic and more-organic-than-thou smugness are not hard to find in the area around the Truman brewery, spiritual home of the trendy twenty-something clone, but ...More...
 
London Dining
Rootmaster
Elys Yard,  Old Truman Brewery, Brick Lane, Shoreditch,  London,  E1
0 minutes distance from Swatch Alternative Fashion Week
The Routemaster bus occupies a special place in the hearts of Londoners. And if the old adage - 'the best way to a man's heart ...More...
 
 
Local Education Near Swatch Alternative Fashion Week
 
 
London Education
The Making Space
10 Sunbury Workshops, Swanfield Street, Shoreditch,  London,  E2
10 minutes distance from Swatch Alternative Fashion Week
Learn some crafty manouveurs at Making Space where classes on mask making, glass engraving, pyrography (burning patterns into wood or leather), chainmail knitting, and book ...More...
 
London Education
Shaker Cocktail Classes
Holywell Centre,  1 Phipp Street, Shoreditch,  London,  EC2A
11 minutes distance from Swatch Alternative Fashion Week
There's a real art to making cocktails. Don't be fooled into thinking it's all about shaking vigorously and pouring because, to be a proper cocktail ...More...
 
 
Local Leisure Near Swatch Alternative Fashion Week
 
 
London Leisure
All Star Lanes, Brick Lane
95 Brick Lane, Shoreditch,  London,  E1
0 minutes distance from Swatch Alternative Fashion Week
The third of these increasingly popular 1950s retro-America style bowling alleys opened in late 2008 to much critical acclaim. Located in the Old Truman Brewery ...More...
 
London Leisure
Fitness Exchange
Spitalfields Health and Fitness,  Fruit Exchange Building, Brushfield Street, Shoreditch,  London,  E1
5 minutes distance from Swatch Alternative Fashion Week
A relatively new player in the health and fitness market, the Exchanges offer well equipped gyms, as well as classes, beauty therapy and swimming. New ...More...
 
 
Local Pubs Near Swatch Alternative Fashion Week
 
 
London Pubs
Bar Kick
127 Shoreditch High Street, Shoreditch,  London,  E1
11 minutes distance from Swatch Alternative Fashion Week
Fashionable Shoreditch drinkers are attracted to this cellar bar by its rickety old furniture, interesting imported beers, and a pricy, but very tasty selection of ...More...
 
London Pubs
Strongrooms
120 Curtain Road, Shoreditch,  London,  EC2A
11 minutes distance from Swatch Alternative Fashion Week
Since opening in 2000 - in the midst of Shoreditch’s sea of pubs and clubs - this venue has been an unhurried but consistent success ...More...
 
 
Local Nightlife Near Swatch Alternative Fashion Week
 
 
London Nightlife
The Rhythm Factory
16 - 18 Whitechapel Road, Tower Hamlets,  London,  E1
8 minutes distance from Swatch Alternative Fashion Week
Scuzzy venue on the outskirts of Shoreditch which looks like a crummy cafe from the outside. Walk past the crowded plastic tables and chairs and ...More...
 
London Nightlife
Cargo
83 Rivington Street, Kingsland Viaduct, Shoreditch,  London,  EC2A
11 minutes distance from Swatch Alternative Fashion Week
Cargo were pioneers of the multi-tasking MDF concept (that's Music-Dance-Food, not cheap fibreboard) and boast one of the most imaginative live music line-ups in the ...More...
 
 
Local Business Near Swatch Alternative Fashion Week
 
 
London Business
93 Feet East
150 Brick Lane, Shoreditch,  London,  E1
0 minutes distance from Swatch Alternative Fashion Week
...More...
 
London Business
3 Rooms
15 Hanbury Street, Broadgate, Shoreditch,  London,  E1
2 minutes distance from Swatch Alternative Fashion Week
...More...