Today 25 lucky students were shortlisted to show at ‘The Best of Graduate Fashion Week’ show to display their brilliant menswear and womenswear collections on our SmartFocus catwalk. British commentator, Caryn Franklin, introduced the show - not forgetting to raise a round of applause for both the tutors and technicians at the universities. Without them, this would not be possible.
Edinburgh College of Art came up top and snagged five of the slots, including Irene D’Antonio’s oriental inspired womenswear collection and Maddie Williams’ over structured polyester shapes. The University of Salford’s Sarah-Louise Francis showed one of the most striking collections, with her avant-garde dresses, tops, trousers and skirts made in contrasting black, white and red.
The menswear was incredibly diverse, ranging from Zexi Yu’s (Kingston) satin pink and green embroidered pieces, to Sarah Rafferty’s ‘Money is Power’ collection with an interesting take on the classic pinstripe. The thing that stood out the most had to be the graduate’s interesting way of using unusual objects. From Kasubika Chola’s use of rice packets as accessories, to Claire Tagg’s use of airplane seatbelts as a means of fastening – the creativity of these 25 was clearly something quite outstanding.
