Graduate Fashion Week 2013

Hello all you Graduates and Students!

I want to give you guys a glimpse of my experience when I went to Graduate Fashion week on Monday 3^rd of June 2013.

I went to see the International show, and there were some amazing students from all over the world. Berlin, New York, Denmark, Turkey, Paris, Pakistan, Rome, Florence, Milan, Israel, Tokyo and San Francisco are just some of the cities that were featured in this spectacular showcase.

The show was a flurry of embellishments, flowers, and leather, strapped up arms and legs, and some really inspirational punk-esque music. My favourite collection was by Chisung Ihn from Bunka Fashion Graduate University in Japan; the leather assymetric skirts, the metallic wedge boots, and the studded helmets were just some of the cutting edge fashion forward pieces shown from that incredible collection. For me, seeing that raw talent coming from Japan just fuels my belief that Western Countries like the UK and America should definitely look for Eastern nations like Japan and China, now more than ever. They’re technology, creativity and flair is extremely advanced; as well as the discipline they drive into children from a young age. You will never see a Japanese Student misbehaving in say for example Brighton on a foreign exchange programme.

The highlight of my day, however, was going to the George stand in the centre of the exhibition to meet the some team members from Company Magazine; I was shortlisted in their Graduate competition to co-edit the October Issue. I had to send them an idea for a new trend; be it through a moodboard, PDF, series of images, or any other kind of visual document. I sent them the PDF document I created when completing my Fashion Forecasting Project for the beginning of my second year of university. They obviously liked it as I was asked to come to the sponsor’s stand with a couple of feature ideas and a cover star. I and 14 other shortlisted girls had to cut and collage our own Company cover out of previous issues onto an A5 piece of card; the sky was the limit creatively and we had to use words and pictures. My cover was very edgy and art-inspired; and had a theme of childishness and looking to Japan and China for ‘Fashpiration’ (a word they coined). It fit very well with my ‘Nextism’ trend (a word I coined) and featured ex Disney Channel presenter and Music Diva Christina Aguleira as the Cover star. Another part of this workshop was to be interviewed by features editor Lena De Casparis, artistic director Tanita Montgomery and George at ASDA brand director Fiona Lambert. I loved meeting them all and sharing my enthusiasm and ideas about what the October issue could provide for readers; as well as explain to them what my cover collage was all about.

Overall, a truly unforgettable day; filled with creative excellence, artistic passion and a real hope for future talent. Every Fashion Students’ dream come true.