Re-vamp; Graduate Fashion Week 2017

It’s that time of year again! Students everywhere are throwing their graduation hats, and preparing to embrace the working world, taking the next steps for their future careers- after they’re done celebrating of course. We decided to ask fashion-student graduates three questions relating to their degree, final collections, and future aspirations, whilst we showcase and celebrate the beautiful work created by these artistic fashion enthusiasts. Graduate Fashion Week shows start  between the 4th-7th June 2017 at the Truman Brewery, Shoreditch, London. Graduate Fashion Week has up to 22 shows and exhibitions, from over 60 different universities, including talks, workshops and masterclasses from leading names in the fashion industry.

My collection imagines 6 urban goddesses existing in a future after the fall of the White-elitist-capitalist-patriarchy. They dress to celebrate their bodies, and create clothing out of the waste left behind by earlier societies as well as renewable materials that they cultivate themselves, and focus on revitalising traditional craft techniques.

The most exciting part of being a fashion student is seeing something you’ve been imagining or drawing come alive, seeing it realised and worn is really satisfying. Secondly, the ability to be able to focus on your personal vision for one whole year and dedicate that time to developing your ideas is a very privileged position to be in, one that likely wont come around again!

My Dream Job is one where ethics and aesthetics can align. I love clothing and creativity, but I think reforming the industry to make it better for people and planet should come first.

Collection is called ”we the people” it’s born from an underlying sense of unease and fear about the world we are living in today. A political structure that seems more geared towards having the people to blame than having the people in aim. We the people have to embrace each other, protect each other, make our similarities and differences visible so we can begin to understand each other.

The most exciting part of being a fashion student is being afforded the opportunity to explore the world around me with heightened senses. To exercise contextualising sensory and emotional information into physical form. Cultivating and developing ideas allowing them to take form often provoking their own questions.

There seems to be a high tax on truth and honesty so to be working in an environment where those qualities are actively encouraged is a unique and special place to be. I love designing, problem solving, discovering, creating and answering questions. My dream role would be to head a collaborative team expressing our vision of today. I want to work with people to provoke, evoke and connect with people the work we create.

The collection is inspired by sleep; it being an integral part of our lives, slipping into a state of unconsciousness to recharge our batteries. Exploring how our beds are our safe havens, where we feel a sense of security and a place we can keep our secrets, but also being a place of sensuality and luxury. I have used rich colours and textures such as furs, pleats, embroidery and gathers to portray this.

Working on a live brief for the FAD x Missoni competition and showing at London Fashion Week in February after being shortlisted as a finalist! Having a platform to showcase your designs like this was such an amazing achievement as a student.

To work within a high street brand, to push catwalk trends in a commercial market and make people feel confident in wearing trend led pieces. To be given a variation of customer profiles and concepts to work with, so I can be really flexible with design and have new exciting projects to work towards.

Inspired by the sartorial styles of Niki Saint Phalle and Barbara Hepworth; sculpture and sculptors make up the core of the collection’s inspiration. Fabrications, lines, colours and materials are taken from the works of Jean Arp, Ellsworth Kelly and Henry Moore. An exploration of the imperfect, the irregular and femininity.

The work experience opportunities in London. The chance to watch and learn from designers I admire, like Roksanda Illincic and her team, has been my favourite part. As well as experiencing the exciting pace of a fashion season from sketch to show.

Working in a creative, collaborative environment. I really enjoy getting stuck into the 3D element of my work with drape and textural embellishment a massive part of my practice.

The main concept of my Collection is the inner world of Depression. Pleating plays an integral part in my collection as a way to represent the complexity of depression. I have used hand painted plastics with different textile techniques to explore mental health issues.

During these three years a fashion design student I enjoyed every project from  research, design development and creating final products. The most exciting thing is to get the idea from the research and get different fabric textures, It feels amazing when the fabric samples comes together by using different material, like the screen print and with different type of the material, face casting to create 3D forms and mixed media digital embroidery..

In the future, I want to be a designer and creative developer for unique texture of fabrics, then use my own fabrics to do designs.

Taking initial inspiration from institutions that were once feared and avoided are now sought out as places of overgrown beauty.   The shapes of the decaying buildings gave me the initial ideas that developed into creating a collection with embellishment as the main focus.  From these I have incorporated different textures through smocking and embellishment with the beading that comes together with elegant shapes and silhouettes.

For me the most exciting part is, seeing what initially just an idea then come together and become a garment that I have seen through the whole design process.  Being able to show our signature style and express what aspects of the design process we enjoy through our own designs and now being able to see it on the catwalk.

My dream job would be a design role whereby I can bring in my textile influences and create outfits that are individual and distinctive to the brand/company.

My collection was inspired by a beauty pageant in the 70’s that was ambushed by feminists, so the aesthetic as a whole was about juxtaposing the different styles of women from this era, mainly focusing on the pageant girls and punk girls. The badges represent everyone just wanting to be the best & show off within their subculture.

The most exciting part of being a fashion student is seeing finished projects and garments come together, making all the hard work worth it.

My dream job would be to become a senior or head designer for a high street brand. I love fun stuff like embellishment, so maybe somewhere that did a lot of that kind of thing.

My collection, No Guts No Glory, is carved out of a world from a landscape bereft of a visual identity for extravagant, strong yet fragile masculinity. Lose the greys and get the golds.

Being a fashion student has put me face to face with intellectuals and eccentric creatives devoted to diversifying just about anything. These minds are constantly re-shape the concept of clothing for me. This is what is exciting about being a fashion student in London.

My dream job, as cliche as it gets, is to design clothes, collaborate with creative, unpredictable characters. Together learning the rules then demolishing them.

Inspired by the construction of Christiania in Denmark; A place inside a place. It’s instability, rebellion and detachment from its surroundings forced me to re-imagine my own connection to my Danish heritage; how I hold onto it, yet still do not fully understand it. ‘LILLE SKAT’ meaning ‘little treasure’; a name my Grandmother would call my sisters and I, a staple of belonging. Through clashing fabrics and intricate stitch lines, my collection aims to reveal something, yet its true revelation remains unclear.

One of the most exciting parts of being a fashion student is sourcing fabrics to reflect design illustrations, and how studying so far away from London has encouraged us to travel up and explore. Meeting industry professionals in practice, and taking part in workshops and work experience has been so eye opening and I have gained so much valuable experience and knowledge.

My dream job would be to have my own company and be able to have an input in every part of it. The reason behind this is because I really enjoy seeing the whole journey of fashion from from initial illustration to fabric sourcing to production.

‘If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants’. My collection is based on the Vanity of Small Differences, my concept has stemmed from a series of six large-scale tapestries by the Turner-Prize winning artist Grayson Perry, which explore the British fascination with taste and class.

The most exciting thing about being a fashion student for me is the freedom to research and explore different avenues, experiencing the crossover of art and fashion into desirable garments. Dream job? – Working within an integral design team focusing on colour and the application of colour.

Alice Holmes:

The collection ‘Strigae’ explores a series of shape manipulation and distorted concepts which goes on to be inspired by the works of Goya. Our key focus is the exploration of colour and print, applying this to urban sportswear with the concept to take something out of the ordinary, manipulate it, and place it with something you wouldn’t necessarily put it with. We wanted the perception of this mis-perceived starting point to acknowledge a visual similarity to that of society.

The most exciting part of being a fashion student is working in a challenging environment with some amazing cohorts. Whilst being very independent with my work, I have enjoyed coming out of my comfort zone and collaborating with students from different disciplines to create a cohesive final collection. I have gained some invaluable skills which I hope to take forward into industry.

My dream job is to eventually be creative director of a highly sought-after label, exploring either Sportswear (unisex), Womenswear and Childrenswear. I would also like to set up and run my own business as I enjoy working with different elements of the design and manufacturing process.

William Shanahan:

The collection ‘Strigae’ explores a series of shape manipulation and distorted concepts which goes on to be inspired by the works of Goya. Our key focus is the exploration of color and print, applying this to urban sportswear with the concept to take something out of the ordinary, manipulate it, and place it with something you wouldn’t necessarily put it with. We wanted the perception of this mis-perceived starting point to acknowledge a visual similarity to that of society.

I’d say the most exciting part of this degree has been having the opportunity to explore so many creative paths. Having the access to explore different mediums and applying this to fashion design has really helped me understand my aesthetic.

I love to have creative freedom and have always had a huge interest in illustration and mark making so it’d be amazing to be able to work freelance as a print designer.

My collection explores masculinity through a combination of military references and sequin print. I have also been developing construction techniques which combine traditional tailoring construction with heat forming to form shoulder shapes without seams.

For me, being able to play with my own wardrobe which has become a big inspiration for my final collection. I have learnt the skills to make my own clothes, which are often a lot brighter and more patterned than things I could buy on the high street and cross over into my design work.

I guess it would be finding a way to make my love of making clothes for myself pay off, perhaps with my own brand. Or working within a small brand. Somewhere hot, probably abroad.

My collection combines colours and textures of 1970s bathrooms with anti-nuclear imagery from Greenham Common Women’s Peace Camp in the early 1980s. I have juxtaposed laser cut metallics with vivid faux fur and print to create a feminine, yet bold aesthetic.

The most exciting part of being a fashion student has been having the freedom to experiment extensively with many different textile techniques, such as screen printing and hand applique of faux fur.

My dream job would be working on the textile development team for a high end womenswear brand.

My work uses a combination of unified construction with print, chemical and hand rendered textile manipulation. My designs provide a contradiction between disciplined shape and the uncertain result of natural and scientific forms.

The most exciting part of being a fashion student: For me, there are many exciting times when being a fashion student. I feel working towards the big deadlines in the run up to Graduate fashion week gets disguised by many, many emotions that we all go through on the fashion rollercoaster. The excitement truly kicks in when you pull your head above the water and reflect on the things you have done. When you look past the scrap pieces of fabric scattered on the floor, the pattern paper in screwed up balls piled high and the endless to do lists taped to the wall. Its when you take a breath and properly observe the amazing pieces that everybody around you has created. That self fulfilling feeling you get there – its one you will never get from anything else. That feeling i will always strive for, I’m sure it will forever give me consistency and will always be the reason why I create fashion.

It is absolutely certain that my dream job lies within fashion. The responsibility to create something new, everyday is something i dream of. What market area, is yet unknown. I would love to gain industry experience across multi market levels in order to explore where my skills lie. I anticipate that my skills will take me to a area that works towards the innovations of a new textiles and product. Perhaps, a team that works towards changing fashion through technology and new fibre creations; in order to change production of fashion forever.

Heavily inspired by geometry and tessellation my collection challenges the harsh and angular connotations of these themes by softening the shapes and applying a consistent colour story to create feminine yet powerful garments.

The most exciting part of being a fashion student is pushing yourself to reach your full potential and discovering new and exciting ways of working- everyday is a different day. The creative journey from conception to the finish piece has been one of the most rewarding experiences I have ever felt.

My dream job would be to have my own label and to see my designs come to life down the catwalk.

My collection is biased on the idea of never growing up. From the books Peter Pan and 100 years of solitude I drew themes of childhood naivety and South American magical realism. I wanted my collection to reflect a world that could be escaped into. The majority of my collection is hand made, crochet and leather as well as dyed sheepskin play key roles in creating my fantasy world.

The most exciting part of being a fashion student I feel is when garments are finished and you can see your vision come to life.

My dream job would be to start my own label.

Register online now and buy tickets at www.graduatefashionweek.com