The tenth staging of the Bermuda Fashion Festival is expected to create opportunities for local businesses, Mayor of the City of Hamilton Charles Gosling said.

Mr Gosling said the festival “continues to bring international models and designers of outstanding talent to the island while also providing opportunities for our local fashion enthusiasts.”

He said the event is worthy of international recognition with previous participants launching their careers from the festival.

Mr Gosling added: “I have no doubt that this year’s event will surpass the previous ones in calibre, excitement, glitz and glamour.”

He said the City has hosted the Fashion Festival for the past nine years as part of its vision to create a vibrant city.

Mr Gosling added: “We hope our local community as well as visitors to Bermuda embrace the opportunity to come out and support our home-grown designers and models and experience the high-fashion collections and array of social events.”

Danilee Trott, Executive Producer and Savvy COO, said:“ It’s amazes me that it’s been 10 years already. It has truly gone by so fast and I’ve loved every minute of organising this Festival. To see where we started out and now experience where we are as a recognised fashion event in the fashion community truly warms my heart.”

There will be four featured runway shows along with other social events during the festival which will run from July 7 to July 13.

Savvy Entertainment, the festival’s production company, announced that this year a new show, the All-Star Designer Showcase, will be added to the weeklong festival.

Ms Trott said this new addition will bring “the unique and jaw-dropping hair scenes back into this production creating an exciting dynamic for this new show”.

This will feature some of Bermuda’s lead fashion designers and industry professionals for the ultimate clash of the titan’s runway showcase.

Other events will include the Maybelline Final Evolution, L’Oreal International Designer show, and the iHope Global Bermuda Designer Showcase.

Ms Trott said 15 local stores and more than 100 models will be featured at this year’s opening event, the Maybelline Final Evolution.

She said selected designers recently started the Bermuda Designer Mentorship Programme which pairs them with international fashion designers, stylists, TV personalities and overall industry experts.

Ms Trott added: “We are also very excited to announce that courtesy of iHope Global we have been able to secure an opportunity for one of our Bermuda designers to present their collection during Milan Fashion week at Oxford Fashion House.”

This year’s designers include Charda Simons and Kimmisha Perinchief of Street Lux; Chineza Augustus of Sevhun, Christine Jones of Thirty86 Clothing; James Lee of XoeTiqu, Courtney Chiappa of SubTropic and Channing Dill of Native by Channing Elizabeth.

They will be mentored by Mickey Freeman, fashion designer and stylist; Lisa Nicole Cloud, fashion designer and TV personality; Thomas LaVone, fashion designer; Melissa Leach, fashion designer and industry expert; Ken Laurence, Project Runway fashion designer and Adolfo Sanchez, fashion designer.

Sponsors of the event include the City of Hamilton, Maybelline, L’Oréal, iHope Global, Salon Pink, JaKoMa, Great Sound, Evian, SJD World and C & C Beauty.

All runway shows will take place at Number One Car Park on Front Street under the Mega Tent. Tickets for all events will be available soon on ptix.bm.

An audition for adult models will be held on Sunday from 11am to 3pm, while children can audition on Saturday, from 11am to 3pm.

All auditions will be held at the lower level of the Pier 6 complex.