Graduate Fashion Week
Wed, 04 Jun 2014 10:08:00 BST
University of Huddersfield final year Fashion Design students were shortlisted for their designs at the Graduate Fashion Week in London. Based on their university briefs, the students submitted a well-executed, stylish and professionally presented fashion portfolio that demonstrated individual creative identity.
“It was great to be nominated by my tutors and I felt quite privileged to attend” Emma Furber, Fashion Design with Marketing and Production final year student, shortlisted for Karen Millen Fashion Portfolio Award.
The project included research, a feasibility study, submitting mood boards, customer boards, print boards, illustration and working drawing boards.
Hollie Crossley, a Fashion Design with Textiles graduate, who was shortlisted for the Karen Millen Fashion Portfolio Award, took her collection out on the moors for a photo shoot in an iconic British setting to carry to the British side of the story. Hollie told us “It has been an extreme pleasure to see my collection through from initial ideas to design. For my design I used entirely British fabric sourcing, I manufactured and finally presented it in a portfolio format. Although I was not successful at the awards it gave me and my collection great exposure to the fashion industry. Fingers crossed for the future”.
The students started their final major collection project during the Christmas period with the deadline being in May. Their work was also judged over the Graduate Fashion Week period and the winners were announced on Monday 2nd June.
Valentina Taglialavore, a Fashion Communication and Promotion final year student said that her project idea was for the brand Burberry to launch a pop up tea room in London as a promotional strategy for a limited period of time. Valentina who was shortlisted for the Fashion Innovation Award has used the help of Matt Wilson an Architect to bring her designs to life, a videographer to produce a promotional video and Hartely's bakery in Huddersfield to bake British cakes decorated with the Burberry check.
She told us “the project featured so many varied elements, particularly things which were out of my comfort zone, such as design and architecture. Therefore it pushed me to explore different areas and initially proved a challenge to source and find collaborators who would work with me and understand my project and my ideas, but also who were within my budget, as it was very limited. It's given me a huge amount of confidence and experience in working with professionals, project management and budgeting skills.”
Lucie Palmer, a Fashion Communication and Promotion final year student who was shortlisted for the Fashion Marketing Award and Fashion Media Award chose to create a Selfridges & Co. magazine in an App format to increase the brand’s digital presence. Lucie told us “I always knew I wanted to create a magazine but it only occurred to me later that I would do things digitally. I have learnt a great deal from this experience and from the difficulty in arranging and putting together photo shoots and the importance of digital within today’s market. For my marketing strategies I wanted to advertise worldwide to coincide with their new international delivery service, with particular attention to social media platforms to target a younger consumer.”
