Fashion: Big names with grand designs for Aids

RIFAT OZBEK, British Designer of the Year, has lost close friends to Aids, including the model and designer Tina Chow and the photographer Stevie Hughes. Ozbek, who co-founded Aids Crisis Trust, is now encouraging fellow fashion designers from around the world to join him in making an enormous quilt to commemorate friends who have died.

The quilt, which will be on show for the first time in central London on the August bank holiday weekend, 28 and 29 August, is expected to feature panels by Vivienne Westwood, Ann Demeulemeester, Donna Karan, Jean Paul Gaultier and Yves Saint Laurent, among other designers. But it will not be for auction or sale. Instead it will join the Names Project, a touring display of 23,500 panels, each of which is a tribute to a person who has died from an Aids-related cause. Panels for Halston, Perry Ellis and Willie Smith, American designers who died from Aids, are already part of the international project.

The idea of the project is to raise awareness of the number of Aids-related deaths. Quilts already exist in 32 countries, from Senegal to Switzerland. Put together, they would be 10 miles long. The purpose of

the quilts is to remind people of the

human stories behind the statistics.

Ozbek would also like individuals to make quilt panels in memory of any of their own family and friends who may have died of Aids. Each panel must be completed by 1 August and must measure 3ft by 6ft, with an extra 3ins all round for hems. Materials should be chosen carefully, as the quilt will be folded and unfolded many times. It must not include glue which perishes.

For further details, contact Rifat Ozbek through the Names Project, 86 Con

stitution Street, Edinburgh EH6 6RP

(031-555 3446).

Meanwhile, Fashion Acts, the industry's initiative to raise pounds 1m for the fight against HIV and Aids, is to hold its annual sponsored fashion walk, this time around Regent's Park, on Sunday 20 June. The event, which also marks the charity's fifth birthday, will finish with a party at London Zoo.

Anyone is welcome to join the walk. Registration before the day costs pounds 12 ( pounds 9 for students), which includes entrance to the after-hike party. Walkers are urged to collect sponsor money of at least pounds 25 each beforehand and pay it in on the day. All

major credit cards are accepted. The walk is pushchair-friendly and arrangements have been made for older children to be taken in a group around the zoo.

For further information contact Kathy

Davies at Fashion Acts on 071-935 7949.

(Photograph omitted)