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After a three-year break, the kingdom’s leading animal charity returned with its fundraising fashion show and its organisers proudly proclaimed it as ‘the best night out on the island’.
The Bahrain Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (BSPCA) hosted its Academy Awards Fashion Show at the Diplomat Radisson Blu Hotel, Residence and Spa’s Al Fanar Rooftop Restaurant.
With an audience dressed to impress, models strutted the BSPCA’s Thrift Shop items down the catwalk with the aim of raising funds for its humane stray dog population control programme, the Catch, Neuter and Return project.
Fundraising coordinator, Joyce Hughes, said: “Thursday night was spectacular and has been billed as the best night out on the island! We reached our target and raised more than BD6,000.
“We have received wonderful feedback and my phone has not stopped ringing. We just wanted it to be fun and it was.
“All the clothes modelled in the show are now on sale at the Thrift Shop, which is where we raise most of our money for the BSPCA.
“The hotel was the perfect setting to hold the event. The stage, lighting, food and the help they provided was exceptional and made the evening even that more impressive.
“Everyone involved on the charity’s side did it free-of-charge and put their best efforts towards the show.”
The show was devised and orchestrated by hairdresser and showman Stephen Herschel, who happily borrowed one of the dresses and amused guests in drag with his impressions of Joan Collins and Celine Dion.
Before the main show started, two male models sporting tight gold spandex resembling Oscar statues, gave the guests a little taste of what was to come.
The female models fashioned items to particular themes such as the disco era, the fifties and the naughty noughties to a selection of Academy Award-winning songs that reflected that particular time period.
And it wouldn’t be the Oscars without a few unexpected moments. The male models not only warmed the audience up with a raunchy routine to I’m Too Sexy for My Shirt but later danced their way down the stage reenacting the famous clip featured in the Full Monty film, perfectly choreographed to the tune of You Can Leave Your Hat On, by Tom Jones. The screams from the audience were deafening.
Students from the Victoria Dance School also performed with style as did the El Yown Performing Arts Troupe.
Schoolboy Luke Doporto then took to the stage singing alongside a puppy and delivered a heartwarming performance.
An auction later took place for a framed polo shirt signed by Red Bull Formula One’s Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber, which was donated by Y K Almoayyed. Raffle prizes included a night-for-two stay at the Sofitel Bahrain Zallaq Thalassa Sea and Spa, watches from Fakhrawi Stores, flight tickets to Dubai, a drag racing experience at the Bahrain International Circuit and a four-ball, 18-hole golf voucher from the Royal Golf Club.
