Tag Archives: Industry Project

Printed Textiles students work with interiors company Blendworth

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Second year Printed Textiles students worked on a live project with the established Hampshire based interiors company Blendworth. After visiting the companies HQ to get a thorough introduction to the company and how they work, students were asked to visit local museums and archives to develop work for the theme ‘Historic Hampshire’ . Students were guided by Creative Director, Emma Mawston and Managing Director Andy Hancock to produce repeat designs for furnishing fabrics.
During the final Critical Reviews and interviews, two students work stood out to Blendworth – Olivia Shepherd and Ellie Bennewith. Their designs have been bought by the company to be put into production, as well as being given internships to gain greater insight into the company and how their designs will be developed.

 

Congratulations to Olivia and Ellie and we look forward to seeing the final designs when Blendworth launch the collection.

 

All Walks & Artsthread Diversity NOW Competition

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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

Last week at PV Designs Paris

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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.

Knitted Textiles Student Hannah Brabon tells us about the wealth of Industry Experience she has gained this year

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During her second year at WSA studying Knitted Textiles for Fashion, Hannah Brabon has managed to gain of wealth of Industry Experience from a combination of Live Projects and Internships, all setting her in excellent stead for her final year.

Here she tells us about her internship with Sophie Steller and her opportunity to go to Shanghai as part of a Live Project with Spinexpo.

“Whilst on work placement at Sophie Steller, I carried out a variety of different studio tasks such as organising fabrics and trimmings, as well as assisting with deliveries. I was also involved with selecting yarn from the extensive collection at the studio, for various trend and colour stories. It was a fantastic opportunity to be able to work with yarn that is of such a high industry standard and improve my awareness of yarn suppliers.

Experiencing working in such a fast paced environment was very exciting as I was able to see projects develop from initial research through to final sampling. I was also lucky enough to be involved in plotting designs on Photoshop for Shima Seiki sampling and embellishing knitted fabrics. I learnt a huge amount from the team of designers in the studio; for example Photoshop techniques and interesting ways of photographing knitted samples.”

Sophie Steller 1

“At the studio I also learnt new techniques on the dubied knitting machines, such as various ways of creating interesting cable designs. It was such a privilege to be able to use the machinery to develop sample ideas for the studio, whilst at the same time developing my skills in the area. I feel very lucky to have been able to experience working in a knitwear design studio, and everything that I have learnt will be so useful for my future studies.”

“During the year, I was also given the opportunity to go to Shanghai in February for the yarn and trend tradeshow ‘Spinexpo’. I had an active role in setting up both the Winchester School of Art display and ‘The Red Room’. It was such a fantastic opportunity to see the work that we created on display and to be able to see how an international tradeshow works. I was able get a further insight into the industry by making contacts with designers, buyers and spinners.”

Spinexpo 1

“I learnt so much from both of these experiences and have become more confident as a result. It has shown me how important getting industry experience is and how beneficial it can be.”

Woven Textiles Students Work featured at Spinexpo

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Final year woven textiles students were selected to showcase their woven samples at Spinexpo as part of a live project with Sophie Steller. The students produced work for two of Sophie Steller’s clients Novetex and Biella.

Dannielle Hutin was awarded a £200 prize for Novetex and Leah Ashton was awarded a £200 prize for Biella. Congratulations!
WSA Woven Textiles Spinexpo WSA Woven Textiles Spinexpo WSA Woven Textiles Spinexpo