F-W-S Industry Project with Printed Textiles

This semester London and Shanghai based design studio F-W-S came in to work with the second year Printed Textiles students. The brief required the students to develop design ideas quickly and creatively using the print workshop as a place to generate ideas rather than just as a place to produced finished designs.

IMG_0258

Tali Furman, creative director, and Alex Poyner, designer and WSA alumni, came in to give an all-day workshop at the beginning of the brief. The students then had to independently develop a large selection of design ideas and resolved outcomes for critical review, working in the ethos of the studio.

IMG_0262

At critical review Tali Furman joined academic staff and to give feedback and select students for potential summer internships. At the end of the project Tali invited 4 students for interview – Cassie MacDonald, Aleks Lund, Vivian Ge and Paulina Nieduzak. 

WSA Fashion Design Students Shortlisted for Diversity Now Competition

Three second year Fashion Design students have been shortlisted for the All Walks Catwalk, Diversity Now competition. Congratulations to Ning Kang, Abigail Skrentny and Holly Baxter!Abigail Skrentny Holly Baxter

Ning Kang

Knitwear student, Hannah Brabon awarded prize from The Worshipful Company of Framework Knitters

Final year knitwear student, Hannah Brabon was recently awarded the HATRA Bursary of £2500 by The Worshipful Company of Framework Knitters. 
After being interviewed by a panel of judges; presenting work and answering technical questions, she was selected as one of 14 winners in the country. As well as the bursary Hannah is being mentored by Peter White who visited recently to see how her work is progressing and give business and interview/portfolio advice.
Hannah’s graduate collection focusses on the detrimental impacts that the textiles industry has on the environment looking specifically at images of water polluted by dye and ink waste, as well as how this effects the surrounding communities. Her colour palette has developed from own photographs of landscapes ranging from acid washed denim to dark indigo tones of blue, as well as hints of pinks, lavender purple and mint green. The textural qualities of natural forms such as water and mountains inspired the sense of pattern, line and shape throughout the fabrics.

Hannah Brabon Portfolio page

Hannah aim to create a luxury sportswear inspired women’s knitwear collection of outfits that are innovative and forward thinking, using denim fabrics and yarns in combination with other sustainable and high quality materials in order to create a highly technical, luxury fabrics. She hopes to promote the concept of slow fashion and aims to have a low impact on the environment.

To continue the idea of clothing with a long life, Hannah initially focused on using pre-loved denim and transforming it into something new and innovative. “I am interested in the history of denim and am inspired by how denim has been a part of the lives of so many people; from a vast array of sub-cultures and classes in societies throughout the centuries. From ancient Japanese Boro textiles to present day casual wear, I am fascinated by the stories behind the clothing that people wear.”

Hannah Brabon swatches

Hannah has used many knitting techniques on a wide range of machinery; these include domestic, Dubied and Shima Seiki knitting machines across a variety of gauges, exploring intarsia, e-wrapping, weaving in, pleating and ribbing. She has also embraced hand dyeing and machine embroidery, in order to add a further depth and dimension to the fabrics. Developing on from the idea of water and preserving the landscape, she uses heat pressing techniques with plastics, resulting in a waterproofed effect.The use of heat pressing techniques with plastics, resulting in a waterproofed effect, encapsulate the idea of water and preserving the landscape.

Hannah Brobon

 

All Walks & Artsthread Diversity NOW Competition

Five Year 2 Fashion Design students have been nominated for the internationally renowned All Walks Beyond the Catwalk competition Diversity NOW in association with i-D magazine.

The competition is a perfect link with the Fashion Design Pathway’s vision of a fashion future, which, as the All Walks organisation states, “empowers and emboldens the viewer and the wearer, envisioning impactful, emotionally considerate, commercially relevant practice in all areas of the industry.”
The nominated students all answered the brief by using their design to “step beyond stereotypes, redefine boundaries and celebrate a wider range of beauty and body ideals in age, size, gender, race and physical ability.”

Becky Chandler

The following words by nominee Becky Chandler (left) offer an insightful summary to students thinking behind their design “The current Fashion industry is over saturated with models who emote a similar look and personality. Magazines process the same kind of person in every page. The lack of diversity is noticeable.” Becky continues “The industry is supposedly about role models and personality, but how can we aspire to be someone we have no common threads with?”
Abigail Skrentny
Ning KangNing Kang (image above), Becky Chandler and Abigail Skrentny (line-up above) were nominated in the Design category and Holly Baxter (bottom image) and Chiara Bradfield (image below) were nominated in the Illustration category. GOOD LUCK to them all!

Chiara Bradfield Holly Baxter

RCA Success for Printed Textile Student Miranda Wang

Congratulations to Miranda Wang for being accepted onto the Printed Textiles postgraduate MA course at the Royal College of Art.

Miranda Wang Printed Textiles

Miranda is currently in her final year at WSA after joining us less than two years ago from Dalian, China. We are sure she will take her lively enthusiasm for printed textiles forward and to new levels over the next two years at the RCA. Well done!

Lecture with knitwear designer and consultant Sophie Steller tonight!

Tonight’s C&E Lecture 17.00-18.00 in Westside Lecture Theatre presents Sophie Steller, Knitwear Designer and Consultant, http://www.sophiesteller.com/  talking about her experiences working with the Fashion & Textiles Industry.

Sophie Steller Design Studio
Sophie will talk about preparing a portfolio, professional profiling and what the industry is looking for in students and graduates.

Last week at PV Designs Paris

Last week we had a stand at PV Designs, part of Premiere Vision in Paris, exhibiting student designs alongside established design studios. We took a selection of second and third year work across the four pathways.

WSA Pv Design Stand

PREMIERE VISION is a textiles trade fair held twice yearly in September and in February and attracts around 60,000 visitors. The majority of these visitors are buyers from fashion companies looking for new fabrics and designs for their forthcoming collections.

There are many trend areas which show the newest fabrics and colour suggestions for the next season. The show is a very inspiring place to visit in terms of design & colour as well as offering opportunities for networking and gathering information about the industry.

PREMIERE VISION DESIGNS is a huge section of the fair where around 150 design studios from many different countries show their new collections of designs for print, weave, knit and embroidery. Buyers from thousands of companies looking for original designs visit PV Designs each season to buy artwork from the design studios exhibiting there. 

Over the 3 days the WSA Make Future stand attracted much attention from buyers around the world. A number of students sold their designs to international fashion brands and there were many comments about the inspiring and original work on display. The students that helped on the stand were able to gain an exciting insight into the industry, talking directly to clients and understanding what companies were looking for.

3rd Year Print on the Stand

Congratulations to all the students whose work was selected to be exhibited and those that sold work as well. It was a great industry experience we hope to repeat next year.

Robert Rauschenberg Exhibition at Tate Modern

jfk_3

Robert Rauschenberg blazed a new trail for art in the second half of the twentieth century.

 

This landmark exhibition celebrates his extraordinary six-decade career, taking you on a dazzling adventure through modern art in the company of a truly remarkable artist.

From paintings including flashing lights to a stuffed angora goat, Rauschenberg’s appetite for incorporating things he found in the streets of New York knew no limits. Pop art silkscreen paintings of Kennedy sit alongside 1000 gallons of bentonite mud bubbling to its own rhythm. Rauschenberg even made a drawing which was sent to the moon.

Each room captures a different moment of this rich journey, from Rauschenberg’s early response to abstract expressionism to his final works saturated in images and colour. Seen together they show how Rauschenberg rethought the possibilities for art in our time.

This exhibition, organised in collaboration with The Museum of Modern Art, New York, is the first full-scale retrospective since the artist’s death in 2008 and the ultimate Rauschenberg experience. It is your one chance to see these major international loans together in one place, while discovering the full story of an inspirational and much-loved artist whose influence is still felt today.

The exhibition runs until 2 April 2017

For more details http://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-modern/exhibition/robert-rauschenberg

The British Fashion Awards 2016

Last week four Fashion Design students were given the opportunity to attend the British Fashion Awards at the Royal Albert Hall in London. The awards celebrate the best of British and international talent from the global fashion community.

screen-shot-2016-12-12-at-15-47-56

As part of WSA’s ongoing affiliation with the British Fashion Council, Programme Leader Cecilia Langemar and Senior Teaching Fellow Sophia Malig were invited to attend the awards. The students selected were Rose Appleton, Hannah Price, Sophie Lightowlers and Curtis Wu.

image1