Fashion students wow London
Thu, Jul 22, 2010
The Portsmouth students won valuable design and job contracts after exhibiting at London’s recent New Designer event. It was the first time students from the School of Art, Design and Media have taken part in the event at which thousands of designers representing the cream of England’s design crop showcased their work to buyers, employers, the media and public.
One student, Louise Calcott, has been asked to design a collection for an American ethical fashion company who were impressed by her work at the show.
Louise will be designing, pattern cutting and taking the designs through to manufacture, and will also attend an ethical and eco fashion trade fair in Frankfurt to undertake research for the company. Louise's final collection used ethical, organic and Fair Trade fabrics and earlier this year she won £500 at the University’s Enterprise Challenge Awards to help her set up her own ethical fashion label called 'Ticketylou'.
Louise said: “It’s really exciting to be selected from such a wide range of design talent. It’s great, too, to have been selected by a company that has similar values on ethical and ecological issues. Without the opportunity of exhibiting at New Designers I would not have met them and it would have taken a long time to gain the exposure within the fashion industry.”
A second student, Rachael Palmer’s designs were inspired by the film Avatar and she has now won interest from clothing retailer Next, as well as from wrapping paper and swimwear manufacturers.
Nikki Strange won freelance work with a textile design studio on the back of her designs inspired by a trip to Goa, India.
Mayada Khammu, was offered a place to study on a highly competitive and prestigious MA Fashion course at Kingston University.
And Sarah Pook had interest from a nightwear designer on her womenswear collection inspired by the Regency era.
Course tutors Sue Noble and Elaine Igoe were also approached at the event by a fashion house designer asking for a list of recent graduates to interview for jobs and some students were commissioned to do design work.
Elaine said: “As well as the wonderful results for the students who attended the profile of the course and the University was raised significantly.”
The New Designer event includes glass to graphics, fashion to furniture, and applied arts to architecture. It runs at Islington’s Business Design Centre eight days a year.
As well as acting as a springboard for their careers, featuring at New Designers puts students in line for a host of awards aimed at recognising talented newcomers.
Graduates from the Portsmouth course gain practical, technical and CAD skills on their first year of study, then develop a fashion and textiles related product within a small design company in their second year, before working professionally on a design brief led by industry in their third year.
The Portsmouth fashion and design students’ showcase can be seen online at: http://tinyurl.com/269bksx
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