SOUTHBANK CENTRE

As lead curator of the fashion strand of artistic programming, Sabrina worked with the festival team to launch fashion as an art form at Southbank Centre.

Through a series of carefully curated events at key festivals including Fashion Undressed, Alchemy, Africa Utopia, China Changing and Being A Man, fashion at Southbank Centre discussed identity and individuality through talks, workshops, exhibitions, fashion shows, dance and performance.

The fashion and culture talks programme spanned topics from pornography to technology, representation and sustainability, chaired by iconic fashion commentators including ShowSTUDIO editor Lou Stoppard, All Walks Beyond the Catwalk founder Caryn Franklin and cultural curator Ekow Eshun.

Pop culture and magazine archivists James Hyman and Tory Turk of The Hyman Archive were commissioned to curate MAGSculinity, an exhibition looking at the many varied representations of male identity as shown on iconic magazine covers of the last century.

Dance and fashion performances worked with innovative artistic directors including Lea Anderson, founder of contemporary dance company, The Cholmondeley’s.  Lea created Getting Dressed as a pop-up performance in the public ballroom space at Southbank Centre.  The performance featured collections from from Prada, Ashish and Christian Dior and used them to explore gender and identity fluidity.  

A crowning achievement was inviting New York based YouTube sensations Style Like U for a residency at Southbank Centre.  Style Like U produce radically honest docu-style video portraits with the aim of redefining beauty standards.  For the first time, Style Like U put out an open call for participants who wanted to show up, strip down and share their stories and aspirations.