The Lithuania Fashion Festival 2005 - an insider's report

For three days in March 2005, the British Council invited designers Jean-Pierre Braganza and Alistair Carr to Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania to take part in the country's biggest celebration of fashion ever, Mados Infekcija. Snow, strange banquets, punk squats, underground clubs and humiliated models ensued. Photography by Jane Gorley.

Vilnius, Lithuania
March 17th - 19th, 2005

Day One

"Jean-Pierre and his assistant Jane meet Alistair Carr and his lovely flatmates on the plane. They arrive in Vilnius and are whisked away to the event venue to drop off the collections (£150 overweight!) and then to the lovely Novotel, right across the road from the British Council, where they meet Lina, their hostess for the weekend. That evening, we're treated to a strange but nice banquet where language barriers mostly prevent the designers from getting to know each other, but at least they had a chance to eye each other up. Jean-Pierre meets the two perky German designers. Later, Alistair finds himself moshing with some Lithuanian punks in a squat."

Day Two

"Alistair and crew are at the venue early for the casting and rehearsal and Jean-Pierre explores central Vilnius after a lie-in. The weather is freezing with wind and snow. Alistair's show is in the evening and looks amazing on the extremely long catwalk with dramatic lighting. Lithuanian models are mostly students who model part-time, but still stunning. The show ends with an Italian designer choreographing his models to part like the Red Sea for him as he does his catwalk bow. The party afterwards in the venue is a little dry, but the designers find a (literally) underground club and dance the night away."

Day Three

"Jean-Pierre arrives early for his casting which turns out to be a harsh lesson in humiliation for the models; they are required to line up in the hall as the designers go down the line-up and point to the ones they like. Jean-Pierre becomes increasingly embarrassed for them as the show producer barks at them in Lithuanian and gets them to walk on the stage so he can reject them even more blatantly. He may never recover and only use casting directors in future. After a long day of fittings, his show ends the day with only minor shoe disasters. The designers party the night away with Marc Le Bihan from France, who teaches everyone a few moves."