Graduate Fashion Week 2006
Fashion talent of the future showcased at Graduate Fashion Week 2006
Fashion stars of the future from Winchester School of Art (WSA), University of Southampton, are preparing to send their designs down the catwalk at Graduate Fashion Week 2006.
Graduate Fashion Week is the highlight of the year for students who will be demonstrating their creative design talents to prospective employers. The event has helped to launch the careers of some of the most famous names in fashion. Previous WSA graduates have secured jobs at fashion houses Alberta Feretti, Betty Jackson, Chloe and Topshop.
The event takes place between 4 and 7 June at Battersea Park Arena, London and is sponsored by the fashion store River Island. Twenty-one talented WSA students will be showcasing their design work in a highly-anticipated fashion show on Sunday 4 June including womens' and menswear collections, and three fashion knitwear collections. A further 14 students will also be exhibiting their work on the WSA exhibition stand at the event.
The students' designs cover a diverse range of fashion trends from showgirl glamour and cut-away fabric manipulation, to altered body forms and sustainable design with organic fabrics. Helena Kruczsynska has used her Polish ancestry's tradition of decorative paper cutting to create cut-away fabric effects with laser cut silk. Nora Sotomaa's sustainable menswear collection features organic and biodegradable fabrics with a high degree of attention to detail.
Students Catherine Cheyne and Hannah Player have both been inspired by showgirl glamour, using striking Swarovski crystals, ostrich feathers, stretch metallic fabrics and fringe details.
The students are hoping to emulate the success of WSA's Alexa Davies who last year scooped the prize for the Best Use of Colour in her designs. A number of the students taking part this year have already had their designs featured in fashion magazine ‘Disorder' and fashion trade magazine ‘Drapers' Record'.
John Hopkins, Head of Fashion at WSA, comments: ‘This unique and prestigious event is a perfect showcase for the creative and ambitious students that WSA attracts to its fashion courses. The School has an international reputation and we are all looking forward to enhancing that reputation further at this year's Graduate Fashion Week.'
Graduate Fashion Week celebrates its fifteenth anniversary this year with more than 25,000 visitors expected to attend, including fashion industry professionals and members of the international press and media.
Visit http://www.gfw.org.uk/ for further information.
The students' work can also be viewed at the WSA Degree Show in Winchester from Friday 23 June to Saturday 1 July.
There will be a fashion show at 4pm on Friday 23 June.
Ends Notes for editors:
1. Digital images of WSA fashion students' work are available from Media Relations on request.
2. The WSA fashion show takes place at 4.15pm on Sunday 4 June in theatre B at the Battesea Park Arena. WSA will be exhibiting on stand 150.
3. Winchester School of Art merged with the University of Southampton in 1996. Founded in 1860, WSA has an international reputation for research and teaching in art, art history and design.
4. The University of Southampton is a leading UK teaching and research institution with a global reputation for leading-edge research and scholarship. The University has around 20,000 students and nearly 5000 staff. Its annual turnover is in the region of £270 million.
Useful web sites for journalists:
Winchester School of Art: http://www.wsa.soton.ac.uk/
University of Southampton: https://www.southampton.ac.uk/
Latest University news releases: www.soton.ac.uk/press/pressreleases
University Media Guide to Expertise: www.soton.ac.uk/press/mediaguidetoexpertise/
For further information:
Sue Wilson, Media Relations, University of Southampton, tel. 023 8059 5457, email: s.j.e.wilson@soton.ac.uk