Last night the entire Jules B team (plus two vans full of clothes)

crossed the Tyne Bridge to the Stadium of Light for the Fashion

Strikes charity event. A star-studded night of fashion and

fund-raising with Sunderland players and models taking to

the catwalk in aid of the SAFC Foundation.

Mislaid diamond rings, panic bronzer touch ups, fighting

over accessories… And that was just the boys.

With one of us per model you’d think it would be a breeze.

How difficult can it be to help a fully grown man get

dressed (and undressed) anyway? When you have about

30 seconds between each outfit change and you’re

trying to keep control over a group of guys who are

all pals, all psyched up and all raring to go – believe

me, it isn’t easy.! But it was definitely a lot of fun.

This was the second Fashion Strikes event for the SAFC

Foundation which helps more than 30,000 children

across the area, using the power of football to reach out

to kids with educational schemes. Captain Lorik Cana

explained how it was a chance for the team to give

something back to the city that supports the team so

passionately.

“Our most important job is on the pitch, but our duty

is not just to play football but to be an ambassador for

the club,” he explained. And the club should be very

proud of all their ambassadors who got involved last

night. The players were a pleasure to work with and

happily chatted with everyone backstage – signing

autographs and posing for pictures on camera phones

with the hair dressers and make-up artists from Reds

hair and beauty.

And it wasn’t just a night of footballing heroes – Olympic

boxing champion Tony Jeffries joined the likes of Anton

Ferdinand, Nyron Nosworthy and Kenwyne Jones on

the catwalk. Plus X Factor finalists Miss Frank performed

on stage, as did mid-fielder Andy Reid who impressed

everyone with a solo guitar and singing performance

of Snow Patrol and Beatles tracks.

“The event is about having fun and raising valuable

funds for the foundation,” he said. “All the lads are

very proud of the work the foundation do, they make

a massive difference to kids in the city.”

Backstage was a mix of chaos, concentration and crimpers.

The boys were in their element, larking around and in

fits of laughter when one of the players (who shall

remain nameless) had difficulty doing up a pair of suit

trousers that were ‘a bit Bramble’. Tight: Titus Bramble:

(Useful football rhyming slang for you there.)

You get the picture.!

There was nearly a crisis when one of the hat’s selected for

Kenwyn Jones wouldn’t fit over his dreads and

temperatures were raised when (in true fashion style)

the start of the show ran 15 minutes late so we had

14 very hot men in a very hot room standing around

in three piece suits and overcoats waiting to get on

the catwalk.

The girl models may have been a quieter bunch but

they had their fair share of fashion drama to keep

them on their toes. The Pinko collection arrived from

Italy literally in the nick of time so a lightening fitting

and last-minute adjustments were called for, and

luckily went without a hitch.The black cocktail

dress with embellished padded shoulders looked

incredible on Anna who wasn’t just modelling

but also organized the whole show through her

events company Butterfly Blue. Big thank you Anna

and good luck on your wedding day next week!

Jayne Middlemiss headed back to her North East

roots to host the event and lucky guests bid for exclusive

auction items which included goalkeeper gloves signed

by Craig Gordon and lunch with Anton Ferdinand

and Darren Bent. Last year, the night raised over

£16,000. The figures raised last night aren’t in yet

but let’s hope they beat that last year.

Team JB didn’t make it out the front during the show

as we were too busy flinging clothes at half-naked men

and helping them on with their box-fresh William Hunt

shoes but there was a lot of whooping and cheering

coming from the audience so I think it’s safe to say it

was a huge success. The biggest cheer came when the

boys paraded down the catwalk in jeans, unzipped

Ed Hardy leather jackets and, well, not much else actually.

But don’t worry we’ve got the whole show on film plus

some great backstage footage which we’ll be posting on

the blog soon. You may even catch a glimpse of the two

players play-fighting in the corner over who got to carry

the pimp cane for their final Holland Esquire outfit.

Like I said, boys and their toys…