[caption id="attachment_297" align="alignnone" width="366"]Photograph - Tammy Manet Photograph - Tammy Manet[/caption] We are all aware of the big fashion weeks held in London, Paris, New York and Milan but it now seems as though Scotland want to reach the international stage with an event of their own.   The Edinburgh International Fashion Festival will take place for only the third time this year and has been created as the vision of Dutch model Anna Freemantle. The event will take place across the space of a week and will be held at some of the Scottish capitals most prestigious venues. Confirmed locations so far  include the National Museum of ‚Ä®Scotland, the Palace of ‚Ä®Holyroodhouse and the Assembly Rooms. This year the festival has two major headline acts in the form of supermodel Helena Christensen and the celebrity photographer 'Rankin'  who was born in Glasgow.   Helena Christensen and John Rankin The appearances of Helena Christensen and John Rankin are expected to be the major draw to the show with a big exhibition of their work planned in the ballroom of the Assembly Rooms. Helena's work will be featured in full colour and focus on portraying strong women, while Rankin's work will be displayed in black and white and focus on strong men. Christensen, 45 was born in Copenhagen and rose to supermodel status in the 90s when she appeared on hottest magazine covers around the world. Rankin has photographed a host of the worlds biggest stars including Madonna, Kate Moss, David Bowie and Leonardo DiCaprio.   Special Events Events planned for the week will include an opening catwalk gala in the national museum plus a ‚ÄúNordid ‚Ä®knitathon‚Äù at an exclusive secret location. Mark Hogarth, creative director of the Harris Tweed company, fashion expert Amanda Harlech. Plus Scottish supermodel Stella Tennant are all other names set to attend. Scottish designers on show will include Judy Clark,  Pringle, Hayley Scanlan, Joyce Paton, Euan McWhirter, Catherine Aitken, and Hilary Grant. The festival will be held from the 17th  to 26th  July, and is expected to include major showcases of South African, Scandinavian and Chinese ‚Ä®fashion.   Keep an eye out on the Neal & Wolf blog in the coming weeks as we will bring you a report from the event with the best of the fashion and hair styling from the event.