The best of graduate fashion 2013!

Before I even begin this post I feel I should explain that by 'best' graduates I just mean a few of my favourites. There are a ridiculous amount of incredibly talented graduates and so many amazing shows that it's pretty impossible to write about all of them. 

So I've just picked four that stood out to me (the majority of which are textile or knitwear based). Seriously, the amount of incredible textiles, print and illustration around this year was insaaaane!!

(All images from WGSN)

Chen-Yu Wang

Although I didn't actually get to see the Ravensbourne catwalk (a huge regret of mine now), I only had to browse all the photos afterwards to realise what a strong class they had. In fact, the majority of my favourite collections were Ravensbourne graduates, and in terms of textiles and print they were definitely well up there as one of the strongest universities. My ultimate fave however was Chen-yu Wang. I absolutely fell in love with her knitted 'eye-ball' jumper- in fact I've barely been able to get it out of my mind since I first saw it... The whole collection is wonderfully playful and imaginative, but I actually think one of the reasons I love it so much is because I actually find it to be quite sinister at the same time. There's something about her pieces that makes me feel quite uncomfortable, but somehow that just makes me want to wear them even more..

Leanne Warren

Another Ravensbourne graduate, Leanne's illustrations and prints inspired by religious iconography were absolutely breathtaking! It makes me wish I'd included more of my illustrations and print into my own collection, but I guess that's always something I can do more of in the future... For now though I'm just going to continue to sit back and admire hers, and carry on wishing that cropped t-shirt was in my wardobe...

Cassandra Verity Green

There were a number of CSM collections that caught my eye this year however, Cassandra Verity Green's was the only one that really took my breath away- the cascades of  pastel "seaweed" combined with the transparent cut-outs and multi-coloured ruffles were beautiful as were her cropped leggings layered underneath. I also fell in love with her little gold-fish bowl backpacks, although I'm not convinced the fish would have had such a great time, but I guess it got people talking....

Hannah Williams

I think it was originally the use of colour that attracted me to Hannah William's collection- it had such a surreal feel to it that after only seeing a couple of photos at GFW as soon as I got home the first thing I did was google the rest of it- and I am so glad I did! It's not until you examine the pieces close up that you notice exactly what it is that makes this collection so special. By cleverly moulding silicone (I'm not exactly sure how, but I sure as hell would like to know), she created garments with the illusion of chunky oversized zips, seams, pockets and layers of beaded jewellery. I can only imagine the other possibilities she can go on to achieve with this technique, and as the winner of the womenswear award I can hardly wait to see what else she gets up to in the future!

There were so much incredible graduate work this year, I only wish I'd had more time to browse through everyone's portfolios. The ones I did get to look through however were incredible- I especially loved Grace Cook (from De Montford)- I made a direct beeline for her knitwear as I was snooping around, and it's only made me want to study knitwear more!

For now though I'll leave you with some Zion. T (thankyouuuuu eatyourkimchi)

Hannah xx

GFW- Northampton

Graduate fashion week already seems an absolute lifetime ago now, so trying to write this post now is slightly harder than I thought it would be, and so I don't waffle on too much I'm just going to write about a couple of collections that mean quite a lot to me...

Starting with my own... to be honest it was all a little bit of a blur, and I spent the majority of the Bath Spa/Northampton show feeling like I was going to throw up, so I was incredibly relieved that none of my nylon tubes shed on the catwalk (as we all dramatically envisioned), no one tripped over the jellyfish and died (although to be honest if she'd fallen in that I'm pretty certain she'd just bounce straight back up), it generally everything went pretty smoothly.

As lovely as some of the press releases have been on my work, I still look at it and criticise every little detail that I know could have been better. What's most depressing though is there's still so much more I want to learn and so much more I want to try out, buutt I guess that's what an MA is for! 

The main inspiration for my collection came from a trip to Japan last summer where I spent about three weeks pretty much falling in love with all their modern architecture. I came back home and just spent weeks drawing from all the imagery I'd taken (and wishing I was still there) and my colour palette of blues and soft greys just kind of evolved from all my drawings, paintings ad colour swatches. My actual final pieces came from me modelling directly onto the stand with shit loads of nylon tubular crin- lengths knitted with broomsticks to create oversized jumpers, folded into hundreds of loops and tied into oversized bunches to create "jellyfish" like structures. 

There are quite a few details that couldn't really be picked up on the catwalk, one of the being the little hand-knitted and hand-dyed squares stitched in a gradient onto blue stretch net, and the devore skirts (one of which took about two months to scrub out with a tiny toothbrush).. I could probably talk about my work for the rest of life, but I'd bore the shit out of you all, so I talk a little bit about two other textile collections that really stand out for me...

The first is by Emma Parker. I seriously spent the majority of this year just staring at her work thinking "oh my God this is incredible, why the hell isn't this my collection?!" Then looking back at my own work and wanting to spit on it in dusgust. But seriously, I don't think I've ever met anyone who's as clever as she is in the way she manipulates and experiments with every media she uses. She used fur in the majority of her collection, but in ways I'd never seen before. It was so exciting to come into the studio every morning to see yet another new and amazing creation in her work space. Her use of devore was something that I really loved as well as again, it was used in a way that not many people had thought possible...

I'm not gonna lie, her collection was probably my favourite out of our year group (and quite possibly the whole of GFW), so I feel pretty privileged to have been there watching it grow and evolve into this amazing creation below...

Secondly is Kiran Bassan's collection. 

Her collection is quite literally an exact reflection of her personality- bright, vibrant, fun and just generally pretty damn amazing!

And as many of you are probably already aware it was her beautifully layered hand-printed pieces that bagged her the Zandra Rhodes Textile award! I can't even begin to describe the painstakingly long hours she spent hand printing metre upon metre of jersey, silk and organza, (then waiting for each layer to dry before doing it all over again), not to mention the time she spent shredding her over-sized kimono type pieces... 

It got to the point where we were quite literally crying whilst pinning fabric onto the backing cloth (seriously, if I never had to pin again I'd be the happiest person on the planet)! 

I'm sure she'll agree though that every painful minute spent slaving away in the print room definitely worth it! Her work is absolutely beautiful and I am proud to say I was the first ever person to try on that orange jacket at the front! (Hellll yea)!

I'm so immensely proud of everyone, and although I only mentioned a couple of people in this post I have to say that I loved every single one of the collections we showed this year, and I feel so privileged to have worked alongside so many talented and creative designers.

 I can safely say I wouldn't be the person I am, and my work wouldn't be what it is now without the support and encouragement of everyone in my year, in fact I can't actually imagine how I'm going to get by without them....

Oh God!

I'll shut up before I start getting too soppy, and instead I'll leave you with my favourite photo- the finale :)

Goooodnight!

Friday!

I have exciting news! So, a couple of weeks ago I finally handed in all my work and after four years spent at uni, I am officially no longer a student (and also officially unemployed), yyeeyy..
That doesn't actually sound very exciting..
I did however find out a couple of days later that my final collection was one of the fourteen chosen to catwalk at London Graduate Fashion week! Sooo I'm back at uni for another two weeks finishing off a few pieces and getting everything organised for the day ---4th of June by the way--- As much as I was dreading the idea of leaving uni, being back in the sewing room whilst my friends are gallivanting around the country enjoying their new-found freedom has been slightly depressing, so I thought colouring my hair would (maybe) brighten my day a tiny bit... It's kinda working. 
The best thing about using chalk to colour your hair is the fact it only lasts up until you wash it out, which is perfect seeing as I get bored with my hair so easily.
I just used your average pack of art chalk pastels to shade my fringe as I find it works just as well as fancy hair chalk, and I already had some hanging around my room, pluusss it's really easy to mix multiple colours together :)
For now I leave you with a few photos of my new pink fringe!
Happy Friday!
Hannah