AS scoops go, this one is pretty impressive.

Students at the University of York are putting together a fashion event to showcase talent in the north with a guest appearance by Anna Wintour, arguably the most famous woman on planet fashion, known for her trademark bob and black sunglasses.

Anna, the editor-in-chief of American Vogue, will be talking about her career and face a Q&A session with Katharine Viner, editor of The Guardian, who herself was raised in Ripon, at the Northern Youth Fashion Show on Friday, January 29.

If that's not enough of a draw, music will be provided by rising star Billie Marten, the 17-year-old singer songwriter (also from Ripon) who has made the BBC's Sound of 2016 list (previous picks include Sam Smith and Florence and the Machine), while Brit bands Metronomy and Friendly Fires have written a new song for the show and will be performing at the after party at Fibbers.

York Press:

SOUNDS OF MUSIC: Brit bands Metronomy, left, and North Yorkshire singer songwriter Billie Marten will be performing

Bafta-winning documentary maker Adam Curtis has worked with the university's Film and TV students to produce a video montage of northern images as part of the background to the show.

The event is in aid of refugee charities and aims to raise £50,000 for good causes as well as support the York Food Bank.

It is being sponsored by Yorkshire Living magazine, a sister publication to The Press, and Grand Central among others.

There will be a silent auction for five special designer pieces as well as a raffle with prizes including a Mulberry handbag and a spa break.

Quite a feat for the organising committee of 20 full-time students at the University of York who volunteer on the monthly fashion, art and culture magazine, HARD.

So how, you might wonder, did they manage to pull it off?

Well as chance would have it, Anna Wintour's niece Ellie is a second-year English Literature student at York and the digital editor of HARD. She is an ambassador for international refugee charity Xavier Project and wanted to fundraise for them. A charity fashion show seemed a great idea - and even better if she could persuade Aunt Anna to lend her support.

It was not, confesses 20-year-old Ellie, a foregone conclusion.

"I asked Anna, thinking she would say no, but she said yes!" begins Ellie, whose father Patrick is Anna's brother. "It's amazing, because when she gets involved you get a level of enthusiasm you would not have probably got. The response has been fantastic."

Ellie has attended a few designer catwalk shows over the years with her aunt, but stresses the York event will be very different.

She fills in the details over coffee in York, with fellow student and HARD editor Florence Mitchell.

For starters, there won't be a catwalk - the show will take place on stage at the university's Central Hall, which can seat 1,000.

Florence, 21, in her final year of a history and politics degree, explains: "We didn't want to do a catwalk as it tends to put models on a pedestal. Our theme is about collaboration and making fashion more democratic. It will be more of an open space, a field of interaction."

The models will mostly be students and be male and female, of different sizes, heights and ethnicity, she adds.

York Press:

ORGANISERS: Ellie Wintour, left, and Florence Mitchell

Ellie said she emailed most fashion schools in the North of England and in Scotland, inviting them to sign up. Ten institutions will be taking part stretching from Hull to Liverpool as well as the Edinburgh School of Art. Clothes are also being sourced from local designers, including Rebecca Carr of Kiosk Collections on Fossgate.

There is another family connection too. Scarves from Teresa Bunting of Oswaldkirk, near Helmsley, will feature in the show. Teresa is Ellie's aunt on her mother Madeline's side.

Both southerners, Ellie and Florence have at least one Yorkshire parent each and say studying in York really opened their eyes to the creative energies of the north - something they want to bring across in the fashion show.

Ellie said: "Northern talent is something to be proud of where you are from: it's full of ambition, grit and life."

Ellie admits to being a fan of fashion from an early age. "My mum used to make clothes for me where I was little, and it went from there. I still make my own clothes. It is fun if you buy something from a charity shop and can tweak and change it, then it costs only £5 rather than £40 from Topshop.

"I have been to a few Burberry fashion shows with my aunt, which was fun."

Both young women believe fashion is not just a frivolous affair - but a global force that can be benevolent.

Florence says: "The fashion industry employs so many people and is a global business and creates so much money that the possibility to do good is very great."

Ellie said her aunt raised a lot of money for charities and raises their profiles in her position and influence with American Vogue. Ellie is keen to support good causes too, particularly charities working with refugees. During her gap year, she spent three months working with refugees at a fabric printing business at a slum on the outskirts of Nairobi, Kenya, with the Xavier Project, which runs schools, mentoring and job creation schemes among some of the biggest refugee communities in the world. Ellie was working with Sudanese refugees and saw at first hand how important it is to give them opportunities to be educated, work and earn a living.

She says of their plight: "It is a chance of birth, you cannot choose where you are born. Every human should have the right to a normal life, not plagued by war or famine."

Proceeds from the fashion event will go towards the Xavier Project and Refugee Action York, which helps asylum seekers settle in the city.

There will also a "tin and ticket" scheme where students can buy discounted tickets as long as they bring along an item for York Food Bank. Indeed, all ticket holders are welcome to donate to the food bank on the night.

Ellie said: "The fashion show is a great platform to raise the profile of northern student talent and attract attention to these causes."

Tickets for the fashion show cost £30, or £15 for students, or ticket and tin scheme at £10, available from yusu.org/tickets. Tickets for the after party range from £8 to £12 and will be released later this week via the HARD magazine Facebook page.