Stand-Out Talent at the Graduate Fashion Week Finale

The late, great Hilary Alexander championed emerging designers with the same unrelenting passion she covered all fashion, leading her to be the President of Graduate Fashion Week from 2019 until she passed away in February this year. She attended every Graduate Fashion Week since 1991 and supported the growth and prominence of new talent securing front page  coverage of Graduate Fashion for The Daily Telegraph, where she was Fashion Director from 1985 until 2011. Her larger-than life energy, leopard print leggings, half-moon glasses, jangly necklaces, and sharp commentary were much missed at Graduate Fashion Week this season. . In an era before mobile phones and instant access, she was the authority on what was in. Alexander also had an eye for spotting the next big thing, reporting on graduate collections of Christopher Bailey, Julien MacDonald, Christopher Kane with the same forensic eye she would train on Versace or Dior.

 

RACHEL HUNT-PEARCE, BIRMINGHAM CITY UNIVERSITY

 

As I waited for the Gala show to start I met the parents of Rachel Hunt-Pearce – a design student from Birmingham. I remembered a classic Hilary’s quip, that ran on the back of the GFW 25th Anniversary Catalogue, like a disclaimer that ‘beauty is in the eye of the beholder, “For every Galliano and McQueen, there are dozens of collections only a mother could love,” wrote Hilary Alexander, in the Daily Telegraph 1997. But I looked at the collection of photos on her parent’s phone. This was more than mother love; this was exciting, this was exquisite dead stock denim, beautifully crafted patchworked and skilfully cut into high fashion. Commercial, clever, creative. My best in show – not least because I got to meet her and her parents.

 

INDIA LUPTON, MANCHESTER METROPOLITAN UNIVERSITY

 

The stand out collections at the Graduate Fashion Week Gala were India Lupin, from Manchester Metropolitan University – for her intricate patchwork of print, and white hooded ruched Tencel winner selected by Amy Powney of Mother of Pearl. Emma Dereve of Nottingham Trent University another Tencel finalist whose white boho blouse dress mixed simplicity with skill. 

 

EMMA DEREVE, NOTTINGHAM TRENT UNIVERSITY

 

YU YING, SICHUAN FINE ARTS

 

Yu Ying, from Sichuan Fine Arts, a brilliant example of how global the Graduate Fashion Week stage has become – showed a collection of intricately placed pattern and patchwork dresses with swing hem. Amy Clunes won the inaugural Hilary Alexander award – in a new twist on an inverted tuxedo, with elongated white lapels curling out like a train. Meg Fletcher of Northumbria University created sleek twisted jersey, Sofia Segalla from Hertfordshire focused on eveningwear with showstopping ribbon and wool crafted knits. 

 

MEG FLETCHER, NORTHUMBRIA UNIVERSITY

 

SOFIA SEGALLA, UNIVERSITY OF HERTFORDSHIRE

 

Erika Roznyte from Bath updated the chainmail mini and Gus Beech knitwear student from Nottingham Trent mixed deep plums with mustard shots in a collection called ‘Resolutions: Upward Spiral’. Charlotte Susan Lamb from Cambridge School of Visual Arts created an elegant narrative in a collection titled ‘A Stitch in Time – Waits for No Man’, her hand-embroidered menswear reinvention of the nautical with woven, knits and confident tailoring. These are the names to watch out for.

 

ERIKA ROZNYTE, BATH SPA UNIVERSITY

 

Graduate Fashion Week is crucial to fashion because this is the ultimate ideas melting pot - first and only time you might see a platform of who that person is, their hopes and dreams tied up in every stitch.

 

GUS BEECH, NOTTINGHAM TRENT UNIVERSITY

 

Look, before they disappear into a corporate career as much as climb the ladder as a solo artist with their own label. This is why this first stepping stone is so important, and could lead them to Not Just a Label and opportunity that shapes their future careers. Graduate shows are the trailer of intent as much as content, the truest a designer can be to expressing themselves through clothes with no boss or business overheads driving the result.

 

CHARLOTTE-SUSAN LAMB, CAMBRIDGE SCHOOL OF VISUAL ARTS

 

Everyone needs a mentor, a champion, someone to believe in them. The talent is out there, it just has to be supported and found. As the lockdown generation set their intention for dressing the next generation it is outwear, colourful, a patchwork of ideas, personality and possibility and lots to love.

 

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