Style HQ Brum on dummy run

Sep 27 2007 By Emma Cullwick, Birmingham Mail

A MAJOR campaign to make Birmingham the shopping, fashion and style capital of Britain swings into action today.

More than 1,000 of the city's shops in the Bullring, Mailbox, New Street, High Street, Corporation Street, Great Western Arcade, Piccadilly Arcade, Pavilions, and Pallasades have joined forces for the Style Birmingham initiative.

Bosses at Marketing Birmingham and Retail Birmingham, which are behind the campaign, hope it will promote the city as the place to come for fashion and quality to rival leading European cities.

The scheme was launched by naked mannequins dotted around the city centre, designed to show style-hungry shoppers that Birmingham is the best place to get dressed.

Nigel Godfrey, business manager at Retail Birmingham, said: "Birmingham is ranked as the best shopping destination in the UK outside London.

"That is a position that we want to maintain and build on for the benefit of all retailers in the city centre.

"Style Birmingham will project shopping and fashion in the city as one voice and the industry leader so that it's no longer about one shop, one street or one shopping centre against another.

"It's about 1,000 shops in one destination, it's about 100 independent retailers in the city centre and quirky Victorian shopping arcades standing shoulder to shoulder with modern department stores and high street brands.

"It's what makes this campaign unique - it's designed to represent everyone."

Mr Godfrey said the mannequins also presented a "blank canvas", showing how Birmingham's shops can cater for anyone..

The mannequins will now be given a fashion makeover using clothes from the city's stores, then placed in shop windows.

The initiative will see £600,000 being ploughed in over the next 12 months, including a national advertising campaign, awards, fashion shows, and new website www.stylebirmingham.com offering tips about shopping.