Life

Anne Hailes: EQUAL founder Shelley Rodgers' passion has no borders or limitations

Anne Hailes

Anne Hailes

Anne is Northern Ireland's first lady of journalism, having worked in the media since she joined Ulster Television when she was 17. Her columns have been entertaining and informing Irish News readers for 25 years.

Shelley Rodgers, founder of EQUAL
Shelley Rodgers, founder of EQUAL Shelley Rodgers, founder of EQUAL

ISN’T it a wonderful thought, giving up everything to do just what you want to do when you want to do it? It takes courage and a lot of determination and facing the fact that it might not work out just as you’d envisaged it in your dreams.

For Shelley Rodgers, however, her dreams have come true and they are becoming more and more exciting.

She’s 43 years of age and lives on the slopes of the Mourne Mountains in Newcastle with her partner Kieran Sherry. They met at art college and now work together, on the brand she created, EQUAL, a multicoloured umbrella of fashion events and magazines.

I had the pleasure of attending their Belfast Alternative Fashion Week and I was blown away. The opening featured drag queen Delishus O’tool, who not only looked stunning but has a remarkable voice. A Dalek appeared halfway through, threatening to eliminate us all. A lady beside me asked, in fear and trepidation: "Is it real?"

Special guest American singer/songwriter Skyler Jett, musical ambassador for Global Change and a man who has sung with the greats, travelled to Belfast from Los Angeles especially for the show.

EQUAL is a unique organisation founded by Shelley four years ago. To date she has held shows in Belfast, London, Edinburgh, Newry and Holywood, featuring local and international designers who line up to be included.

“No-one pays as they are each struggling to support their career. You can’t be an artist and a financial wizard at the same time. Emerging artists don’t get advice, there’s no connection between school, university and business. They go to the dole and ask: 'I’m an artist – can you help me?' The reply? 'Go to Tesco and get a job.'”

Top drawer fashion

They all know the quality of work she and Kieran demand for their online and published EQUAL magazine. The pictures are glossy, it's full of colour and information about people in the industry, both local and international – stories on models, photographers and artists, articles about jewellery.

For instance, Doris Hermann, whose husband works in metal at their base in Germany and – waste not, want not – she collects the metal shavings and incorporates them in her art work and in a jewellery range. These beautiful pieces were worn by models at the EQUAL Belfast Castle show.

Bangor designer Jenny Lindrop put her ethereal bridal range on show, film director and international graphic designer Bruno Tilley had a number of one-off T-shirts and JeanJacket Designs showed bespoke hand-painted illustrations on recycled jean jackets with a touch of Swarovski crystals! Imagination runs riot with these creative people.

Ross Davidson, one of the models, is a member of Knights wheelchair basketball team; he lost his leg in a traffic accident in Thailand but, like others involved in the world that is EQUAL, is happy with his prosthesis and was striding out to whoops of delight from his fans in the audience.

Shelley’s magazine covers topics that concern us all: cancer awareness, a feature on Julia Clements, an award-winning make-up artist who trained and worked for the British Red Cross and Changing Faces charity... Julia provides a specialist camouflage service for those with skin abnormalities and disfigurements.

An article on local artist Alan Quigley, whose commissions include Chris Rea, Ian Botham and Rick Stein. We saw for ourselves, as his paintings adorned the castle’s ballroom walls, a vibrant, colourful, no-nonsense sort of art; big and bold, reflecting the show itself.

Entrepreneur in action

Seems to me that Shelley has no borders or limitations. Her passions take in every walk of life in every country. She shoots for the Moon and ends up somewhere in the stars. Whether it’s the lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender community, men and women who have lost limbs, tattoo artists, musicians or designers, she wants to support them all.

Why should she do this? By a remarkable stroke of ill luck her mother was involved in a car accident on the Gransha Road in Bangor, when her left arm was shattered and bones from her hip were grafted to rebuild it. She was in plaster for two years.

Some time later, when she was just seven, Shelley was involved in a car accident on the same stretch of the Gransha Road. Her leg was so badly damaged that her foot was left hanging on by the skin.

“I was taken to the Royal Victoria Hospital and because of their experience during the Troubles, surgeons were able to attach my foot to the leg and ankle bones but they told my parents I would probably not walk on that leg again. My reaction was, 'No, I will. I’m a gymnast and I’ll get myself fit to walk and perform.'"

Two years later she came second in an all-Ireland sports acrobatics event in Dublin. That’s typical of this feisty young woman who has a string of letters after her name; at Queen’s and later at Ulster University she studied art, design and photography. At South Eastern Regional College she lectured for 15 years on her subject and encouraged her pupils with their artistic futures.

“I learned one important thing during those years – artists aren’t given enough information about running a business. When you think of it, everything around us required an artist’s vision yet so often they are the last people to make money.

“I was fortunate to turn my talents into a business with the magazine and fashion shows – our latest, at Belfast Castle, was more of a party to say thank you to many people.”

And so it was – a celebration of glamour, music swirling around, singers and a fabulous boy band made up of pupils at the Boy’s Model school from the Woodvale area and called Vale. Remember that name.

Just another example of Shelly giving artists of all kinds, each with a unique lifestyle, a showcase and the support they need.