Graduate Fashion Week showcases new talent

May 18 2010 by Liz Lamb, The Journal

GRADUATES from the fashion design course at Northumbria University will be showcasing their work at Baltic today before heading to Graduate Fashion Week. LIZ LAMB speaks to some rising stars of tomorrow.

Louise Dickinson

The 22-year-old’s creative talent runs in her family.

Her dad is a photographer, as was her granddad, who was also a very good artist.

Louise, from Wallsend, is turning her creative streak to fashion and is set to showcase her designs at the Northumbria University Fashion Show, as well as the Graduate Fashion Week in London.

She has designed a collection of womenswear based on cultural designs from Mexico and Peru and then converted it into British tailoring.

“We have one-piece ponchos which are then tailored to look like a normal rain mac, but everything is printed with maps from around the world,” she says.

“My inspiration came from vintage macs and tailoring, tailoring aspects of one-piece fabrics and turning that into a garment. I use a technique called moulage, which is basically draping the material over the stand and creating a British tailored shape out of this one piece of fabric.”

She uses muted colours, such as creams and greens, on hard-wearing fabrics.

After all the hard work of designing and remaking, she is looking forward to seeing all her work finally come together at Baltic on Tuesday.

“I can’t wait! I’ve seen it progress so much from start to finish. It’s going to be a fantastic experience, seeing everything walking down the catwalk.”

She has had some experience with a freelance company that does work for Henri Lloyd, and on her summer break she worked for clothing company Visage in South Shields.

“I’ve always been creative, and I used to love art and textiles at school,” says Louise. “ When I finished school I went straight to college and signed up on a course. I knew exactly what I wanted to do.

“Hopefully in ten years’ time, I’ll be creating my own collection for catwalks around the world – Hong Kong, Paris, Milan or New York, the perfect place.”

Amelia Chester

Amelia has based her womenswear collection on her home.

The 24-year-old has created an industrial-come-rural design, inspired by her home county of Lancashire.

She says: “It’s a rural area, but it’s broken up by power stations, oil refineries and steelworks, so I’ve kind of done a collaboration of rural and industrial. It’s also inspired by the 80s film Local Hero, where an oil salesman goes to buy a Scottish island.

“It’s an evolution of industrial going through to rural. It’s based on our future – how we’re running out of oil and we’ll all have to change.”

Amelia has used a lot of natural materials, like flannel, leather and silk to create sheepskin coats and dungarees in greys, taupes, beiges, pinks, and mustard.

“It’s the idea of getting out of bed first thing in the morning and chucking on whatever’s there,” she says. “ The sheepskin coat is based on a dressing gown, a wraparound coat.

“Then I have mini-collections within it – so I’ve got bits of lingerie, I have a suit that can be pieced together. There are a lot of separates and everything’s mixed together with mini-ranges in it.”

“It’s going to be great to see it altogether at once,” she says of the fashion show at Baltic.

“You work on an item at a time, so it’s going to be good to see it all come together as a collection.”

The fashion student has worked for designer Marios Schwab, Esquire magazine and shirtmakers Thomas Pink in Savile Row. Yet she is also interested in theatre and costume design and has had some experience with Emmerdale and the Royal Shakespeare Company.

Her ideas for fashion, however, are more long term.

“I don’t like to see it as fashion design. I’d like to see it longer lasting,” says Amelia. “I prefer to make classics that someone will keep for a long time, rather than a crazy statement that will only be worn once. A bit like a really good coat that you will keep for ten years, or a really well fitting pair of trousers. It’s fashion, but I’d like to think of it having a longevity about it.”

Amelia is excited to be going to the Graduate Fashion Week and her future in fashion.

She says: “I would like to work for myself in some capacity, whether in costume or in fashion. I’d like to live in the country and work from there and keep going to the city. I’d like to have a nice country retreat and keep travelling to work.”

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