Graduate Fashion Week reached its glittering climax last night after four days, 40 shows and more than 420 graduate collections. Shiny new Life Patron Dame Vivienne Westwood sat front row alongside partner Andreas Kronthaler — and the three original founders of GFW, Jeff Banks, Vanessa Denza and John Walford — to watch the grand Gala catwalk show, where the 25 top collections of the week were shown again, and a raft of prestigious awards were presented.
The designer of the moment was undoubtedly De Montfort graduate Hazel Symons. Her collection of monochrome, rubberised Mackintosh fabric tailoring, with ‘cut out’ panels held together with silver bolts rather than seams, and decorated with hand painted wide check patterns and contrast hand stitching blew the judges away. First, Symons claimed the Creative Catwalk award, judged on creativity, catwalk impact and workmanship. Then, she was announced as the winner of the £10,000 Christopher Bailey Gold Award, judged by a group of industry names including designers Gareth Pugh, Christopher Raeburn and Giles Deacon, director of MA Fashion at CSM Fabio Piras, and journalists Susie Lau and Laura Weir, and presented by the Burberry creative director himself, 24 years after he lifted the same prize.
“When you watch the collections presented on the catwalk, it can all seem very effortless,” Bailey told the audience. “But I know both from my own experience and by working closely with the students, how intense the experience can be, and I know how extraordinary the talent of the students is here this evening and how hard they’ve worked to get here today. They deserve all of the recognition they receive tonight.” He also praised the UK’s ability to welcome talent from around the world, placing emphasis on “including Europe” to rapturous pro-EU applause from a crowd of both creative and business focused fashion industry players.
The £5,000 M&S Womenswear Award went to UCA Epsom graduate Quivvei Jiang for her surreal collection of trompe l’oeil 20s flappers, and the £5,000 Debenhams Menswear Award was claimed by Kingston University’s Caoimhe Savage with her collection of oversized fisherman’s raincoats, utility pouches and corduroy trousers.
Nottingham Trent graduate Kendall Baker took home the Matalan Visionary Knitwear Award for her Sibling-esque collection of brightly coloured knitwear, crochet and embroidery.
Credits
Text Charlotte Gush
Images courtesy of Graduate Fashion Week