Huddersfield Students Win Placements in Japan with Shima Seiki
Five Textiles students from the University of Huddersfield entered the competition with Shima Seiki
Wed, 04 Mar 2015 10:27:00 GMT
Two University of Huddersfield students have each won a three-week paid trip to Japan, where they will receive training at the headquarters of the world leaders in computerised knitting technology for fashion and clothing design, Shima Seiki.
Kathryn Seymour and Hazel Simpson are final year Textiles students. They were selected by Shima Seiki as the worthy winners of their Tomorrow’s Designer competition, for which they had to develop a knit design using their Apex 3 program.
Martin Bowler - Training, Design and Sales for Shima Seiki - said, “This competition marks the inaugural year for Shima Europe and the universities who are using Apex. The aim of running the project is to inspire more textiles students, who are the future of fashion design, to enter the industry”.
Kathryn’s winning project, entitled Entropy, was inspired by a study of the markings in the bark on trees. Fascinated by how knit is becoming more widely used in interiors, Kathryn translated her inspiration and ideas into jacquard patterns for wall hangings using Shima’s Apex technology. Kathryn said, “We’ve had training from Shima throughout the course, and now I can’t wait to go to Japan in August to work with them”.
Hazel works with textile art and has a great interest in textile archives, having worked on placements in the textile archives at Paul Smith and Margaret Howell. Her designs of knitted leggings were inspired by her archival research. Having started working with hand knitting, Hazel then went on to see how her knit designs could work using Shima’s technology. Thrilled to have been selected as a winner, Hazel said, “I think the trip will be an amazing experience and I can’t wait to get immersed in the culture over in Japan”.
For more information about Shima Seiki visit http://www.shimaseiki.co.uk/
