Continuing its strong support of the talent of the future the British Fashion Council has invited all of our graduating Fashion and Textile students to a series of digital talks to gain key insights from Fashion industry experts at the Graduate Preview Day on Tuesday 22nd June 2021.
Speakers include David Beckham OBE, Caroline Rush OBE, Matty Bovan, E.L.V and DENZA Recruitment. Topics covered on the day include ‘Navigating the Fashion Industry as a Marginalised (or Minority) Voice’, ‘Are You Employment Ready? Top tips’ and a range of considerations when setting up your own label.
We are excited to announce that a wonderful selection of Winchester School of Art students from Fashion Design, Knitwear for Fashion, Printed Textiles and Woven Textiles are yet again presenting their work to the Fashion industry HERE at this fantastic virtual event hosted by the British Fashion Council.
Winchester School of Art has the pleasure of inviting you to our Summer Degree Show, showcasing work from the graduating students of our six undergraduate programmes.
If you would like a tour of the whole show, including all six undergraduate programmes, please visit the Main Reception, where an Ambassador will assist you. Tours of the whole show will leave approximately every 30 minutes.
This year, we have some restrictions in place to keep our staff, students and visitors safe: please ensure that you wear a mask at all times while indoors and also keep a social distance between yourselves and other visitors. We have a one-way system in place to help with social distancing, please follow and stick to the arrows on the floor.
We look forward to welcoming you on campus and hope that you enjoy the show! For any further information please contact Craig via c.wadman@soton.ac.uk
Year 2 Fashion Design students worked with the wonderful nowhere creative team to unlock their creativity.
Creativity is one of the most sought-after and yet elusive qualities of both our personal and organisational lives. We need it to push our thinking, enliven us, and help us achieve things we never thought we could. Organisations need it to drive innovation, shape the unmade future, develop breakthrough strategies and be more adaptive and dynamic.
Creativity connects us to our creative life force. It underpins every discipline and is the source of step-change in every subject. It enables teams to be greater than the sum of their parts, and communities to surprise themselves with what they can create. It animates cultures, sustains societies, and drives economies. It also happens to be intrinsically rewarding and deeply nourishing.
Some say our creativity is educated out of us. Many say they don’t see themselves as being creative. We think both are a real shame because we believe everyone can be creative and can learn to meet life differently.
In this Age of the Great Unknowing, we need more people than ever to be catalysts of change. Because of the unprecedented challenges that we see young people and organisations face at this time, we have developed a new virtual creativity programme. It enables a new and next generation, to become accelerators of change, innovation, and transformation. Welcome to Meeting Life.
The students at Winchester experienced elements of the following four key principles – expressing their creativity through words, images, drawings, and objects.
FOUR KEY PRINCIPLES OF MEETING LIFE
Stand in your magic – know yourself first
Co-create with others – put difference into creative relationship
Ride the creative rollercoaster – learn to thrive in uncertainty
Catalyse breakthrough – bringing newness into the world
Here’s what our Year 2 Fashion Design students learned…
Earlier this year we were approached by Murray Uniforms’ head of design and Winchester School of Art alumna Ana Dieaconu with a wonderful brief for our Year 1 students to ‘take in’ the current situation and create a work-at-home menswear uniform.
The students were introduced to the science of enclothed cognition and asked to think about the influence clothes have on the wearer’s psychological processes. How can clothes influence someone’s productivity in their home environment?
This was a wonderful opportunity for the students to take a positive direction from the start of their design training in unprecedented circumstances. In addition to situating their ideas for a professional outcome the students focused on the importance of fabric choice, the influence of details and the significance of the wearer’s embodiment of the clothing.
An inspired range of approaches were taken including connecting with friends, family and strangers in order to gather insights on home working needs and issues. Students explored the wide range of inventive ways in which people have adapted their roles to work from home and the ergonomic and comfort requirements the come with working more prolonged hours at a desk – or laptop on the sofa.
The opportunity was also a competition, the winner and runner up of which received cash prizes and mentoring advice from Murray Uniforms’ head of design Ana. On this Ana stated “Murray Uniforms firmly believe that the education sector is a hive of great ideas, ambition and forward thinking and we want to align ourselves with such thinking, which is why Murray support me in creating opportunities for students.“
Winner: Jasmine Aldridge
Jasmine’s collection ‘Off the Cuff’ took a broader overview of working at home men and blurred the lines between casual and corporate wear so that the transition from bedroom to boardroom can be taken in a few steps. As comfort with a sense of professionalism is key, Jasmine kept formal and (screen) visible elements such as collars, set in pockets and buttons in play whilst adding elasticated trims, drawstring waists and an overall relaxed fit. It is the little details such as a twisted trouser seam for a comfortable sitting position and low profile padded sleeve panels for at a desk working that set this collection apart and offer a difference.
Runner up: Zia Xinyi Zhang
Inspired to dress the array of male makeup artists who have switched to online as an alternative route to style their clients Zia designed functional, easy to wear mix and match outfits with a twist. Through the process Zia explored the full ergonomic movement of the wearer to build ease into tight fitting pieces and marry this with loose fitting stylish Japanese inspired items to create a collection with some drama. in addition to comfort and movement the key consideration for fabric was the wash or wipe down of make-up stains.
Overall, this was a wonderful opportunity for all students and we welcome Ana’s vision to “collaborate and support students as much as I can to ensure they have a great start and a strong, diversified portfolio when applying for new jobs.“
Year 2 students were given full creative freedom and asked to write and develop a short film that reflected their personality and conveyed their ideas through the digital medium of film. This was an intentially quick project. The students had a week to develop their initial concept, write their story, decide on location, model, styling, colour, lighting and select an appropriate soundtrack. Each film was shown to the year 2 group and they voted for the films that they enjoyed the most. It was a really fun and varied crit, each of the 23 films unique and creative. The following films had the most votes, so I hope you enjoy this work of our Fashion Design Year 2 students.
Rock, Paper, Scissors (2020) Directed and created by Zixin Liu, Jacinda
My story is about rock, paper, scissors, and I mainly want to talk about the Zeigarnik effect. An activity that has been interrupted may be more readily recalled. It means that people remember unfinished or interrupted tasks better than completed tasks. In my video, I used a draw with rock paper scissors to express this unfinished thing. A hand that appeared suddenly interrupted the game, like it took me away. Then I was doing other things, such as playing pens and reading books, but I recalled the idea of finishing rock-paper-scissors and decided to win or lose. In the end, I came back to complete the rock-paper-scissors. Like I said at the end, there is always a thought that leads you to finish what you almost finished. This is also a way to get rid of procrastination. It is always telling you that you still have something to do, so hurry up to do it.
Model: Zixin Liu, Jacinda/ Shujie Fu, Sue/ Chuyi Liu, Barbara
Shot by: Zixin Liu, Jacinda/ Chuyi Liu, Barbara
Creative Direction: Zixin Liu, Jacinda
Music: Unknown, free non-commercial use through Douyin
Fluid (2020) Directed and created by Hannah Andrew
Fluid is about exploring a softer side to androgyny looking at how masculinity and femininity are interchangeable. I wanted it to feel dreamy and intimate with the character, to get a sense of a real personal reflection and growth.
Shot by: Alexander Baldry
Model: Catherine Jones
Creative direction and editing by: Hannah Andrew
Music: Japan by Uniq
Flora Lyndsey (2020) Directed and created by Flora Lindsay
I wanted to create a video to present my brand, Flora Lindsay, a trial of creating a look book video. The video shows many of my past garments from various collections. I loved combining some happy, funny clips with more serious clear shots to give the relaxed, easy going and fun atmosphere alongside some clean tailored looks to represent my brand.
Models: Molly Lindsay (@moomoomusic), Daniel Jolker, Flora Lindsay
Shot by: Flora Lindsay
Clothes: Flora Lindsay
Music: From FMA (Heaven – Makaih Beats & Unknown name, with football crowd noise in the beginning)
Seas the Day (2020) Directed and created by Emily Kaliczynskyj
A short film that reflects the connection between this year’s staycation holidays due to COVID-19 and the ‘good old days’ of British seaside town summer vacations. I wanted to show the fun and light-heartedness of the day as I believe it is now more important than ever. I feel the piece celebrates escapism, with people from all circumstances and backgrounds coming together to the same place to feel ‘normal’, even if it was just for a short while. I also wanted to capture the different moments that were happening all at the same time, as I felt there was a sense of unity as I walked along the beach.
Music: ‘I do like to be beside the seaside’ (John Glover-Kind, 1907), performed by Emily Kaliczynskyj
Shot by: Emily Kaliczynskyj
My Dream (2020) Directed and created by Boxuan An
How do I describe my dreams in pictures? I close my eyes and say good night and fall asleep. I want to see the strange saturated colours in my dream more clearly. However, I can only see blurred colours and outlines. It is said that human eyes keep moving during sleep, perhaps for the sake of seeing and remembering dreams better.
Model: Boxuan An, Andrea
BGM: 《蒸汽波》 (Steam Wave) – tttth (free non commercial use)
Third of three mini insights into our Year One Fashion Design students’ inaugural project Original Copy.
Capitalising on her 0 waste attitude to design Jasmine’s collection from reclaimed shirts ensures collars, plackets, cuffs and pockets all have an extra place in her deconstructed designs.
Taking inspiration from her parents first-hand experience of the 1980s Jasmine indulged in the WSA library’s vast collection of 80s i-D magazines and documentaries to develop a collection that clashes Punk with the Memphis design movement in the style of her designer of choice Ahluwalia.
The pieces feature alternative seams, buckles and fastenings with clashing colours, haphazard arrangements and strong shapes.
Second of three mini insights into our Year One Fashion Design students’ inaugural project Original Copy.
After putting a call out over social media for donations of unwanted shirts Alice honed in on supersizing the identities and details of her chosen designer Bianca Saunders.
Alice identified Saunders’ sheer figure-hugging T-shirts, side-split trousers, clingy silk shirts and ruched, ruffled cropped tops as a means to explore gender identity. Saunders’ West Indian heritage offered the opportunity to explore the voice of the Black Power movement culminating in a collection which overall champions freedom of expression.
An unusual space in which the Black Panther Movement meets the reinventing styles of Prince and David Bowie and Blitz club personalities like Leigh Bowery and Michael Clark. The right to a voice and freedom of expression opens the door to ever-mutating identities.
First of three mini insights into our Year One Fashion Design students’ inaugural project Original Copy.
Tasked the job of designing a range of tops from reclaimed shirts for a designer of her choice Eleanor threw an array of mashed up ideas into a melting pot and out popped an equally mashed up range of fabulous styles.
Through the process we saw Ahluwalia’s AW2021 collection meet abstract buildings and globular sofas; Pablo Picasso’s Cubist pieces; vintage Nigerian album covers; Akwete cloth; the 1993 film Cool Runnings; Barbara Brown’s prints and Anrealage’s 3D forms.
Free hand stitch and natural dyes made from items out the cupboard and fridge helped to transform the reclaimed shirts into Eleanor’s own Original Copy.
We are excited to share Lily Prescott’s thoroughly deserving collection ‘Neon Playground’ which has been shortlisted for the i-D and ARTS THREAD Global Design Graduate Show 2020 in collaboration with Gucci.
Please read on, and if you share in our sentiment that this collection deserves greater recognition please click on the link below and vote before 14th September.
4482 students uploaded their end of year projects for the biggest ever global online event solely focused on graduating creative students. A large independent judging panel consisting of notable fashion names such as Alastair McKimm, Anya Hindmarch, Diane Pernet and labels such as Browns, Levi’s, Tommy Hilfiger and Marimekko whittled the huge fashion contingent down to 180 shortlisted projects, one of which was WSA BA Fashion Design student Lily Prescott’s ‘Neon Playground’
Lily Prescott – Neon Playground
Encompassing 20th century baseball & American football uniforms, Japanese Kinbaku binding and traditional craft techniques Lily’s collection moulds the old concepts of masculinity within vintage inspiration into something neutral and fluid. Tim Walkers ‘Wonderful Things’ exhibition and Ukiyo-e block printing inspired her bright and contrasting colour palette and graphic prints. The collection melds together the traditional and fetishized, creating garments with a new perspective on how masculinity is represented within fashion, by allowing something artistically lewd to reside within traditionally male silhouettes.
By Dr Lyanne Holcombe lecturer in critical studies in fashion and textiles.
For today’s news feature we look into the world of online fashion context and how this can inspire us to think beyond observations. What I find inspiring when I search the great array of national and international museums is the choice and depth of what we can discover about clothing history, style and context.
I love the layout of the pages and whilst looking up the Items: Is Fashion Modern exhibition (which ran from Oct 2017 to Jan 2018) I was astounded by the amount of information on offer. New York is a renowned fashion world city and whilst we sit in our homes we can explore what’s happening as a kind of urban platform for the past, present and future! With some real pioneering stuff on offer I began by searching past exhibitions and thinking about how this could fuel new ideas for my research. What got me interested in this site were the current fashion aspect and how cutting edge this museum seems to be for the fashion industry and contextual history. I usually go straight for the archive and find myself amazed by the images on display, although it is always good to explore various exhibitions to see what can be found.
I obtain a lot from reading the introduction, which clarifies what’s interesting and useful. Fashion Curator’s make design fascinating, therefore it useful to read the book that accompanies any exhibition. In particular Paola Antonelli has a wide realm of experience and describes the intention of the show:
Items will invite some designers, engineers, and manufacturers to respond to some of these indispensable items with pioneering materials, approaches, and techniques—extending this conversation into the near and distant futures, and connecting the history of these garments with their present recombination and use. Driven first and foremost by objects, not designers, the exhibition considers the many relationships between fashion and functionality, culture, aesthetics, politics, labor, identity, economy, and technology.
If you are looking for ideas, this is a great exhibition to reflect back on. The website offers a list of designers and the catalogue provides ‘an A to Z of the 111 garments and accessories that have influenced the world in the past 100 years, from icons of fashion to humble masterpieces of design.’
Check out the website and What’s On to see visuals, images and interviews with people who talk about wearing Martin Margiela Tabi Boots or the photographer Godlis on his late 1950’s anti-fashion Biker Jacket.
