DEBBIE WINGHAM FROM FASHION TO COUTURE CAKE
Debbie Wingham: Alice in Wonderland
Debbie Wingham is well known as the designer who creates the most expensive pieces including the world’s most expensive black diamond dress, red diamond abaya, and last year’s world’s most expensive cake decided to combine everything she is known for fusing haute couture and cake artistry in a world’s first edible art installation showcase with some diamonds of course for good measure.
The event was to mark her transition from couture to cakes, a farewell from fashion and a new chapter in her career as a cake artist.
The event was held at the exquisite stoke park and Wingham chooses her favorite children’s charity The Variety children charity as a beneficiary of the evening, her creative team included internationally renowned makeup artist Lan Nguyen-Grealis and top photographer Gem Rey to capture the evening of magical events.
The edible runway collection was a collective of edible components that visually looked like fabric combined with silk here and there and it was the general consensus that no one in the audience realized that it wasn’t fabric until one of the models took a brooch of her garment and begun to eat it! Another took a bite out of her too good to eat a clutch bag! These pieces looked like designer gear and the audience was quite shocked, to say the least. Apparently one of the pieces the models wore weighed as much as a 6 tier fruit cake which is quite a weight to wear and walk the catwalk, one of the other looks combined edible millinery inspired by the original mad hatter Louis Mariette and this ensemble included a 5 tier edible cupcake fishtail skirt.
Worthy of its influence the Alice in wonderland with a strong hint of Charlie and the chocolate factory, the table included cupcakes that you could eat the wrapper, edible piping bags with frosting and molecular gastronomy fudge along with all the classic cakes, even a chocolate edible cheese board and chocolate cookie sushi. The larger cakes included absolum with a smoking sushi pipe, a clock installation acknowledging Alice through the looking glass and numerous visual feast sets and scenes including a wall of edible flowers and slightly macabre meets high fashion pudshires Tim burton esque displays, the event was a cross between catwalk event, ongoing fashion editorial with high-end sets and display for guests to enjoy and then the amazing pastries.
”For me it was the only way I could truly embody my new brand couture to cakes, swapping fabric for fondant and whilst fashion was my first love, life as a cake artist is definitely my future”
