University of Westminster 2012 Fashion Graduates Runway Show

Claire Barrow - Photo courtesy of University of Westminster.

By João Paulo NUNES

London Editor

[London], May 27, 2012 - On 24 May 2012, The Style Examiner joined some 500 guests in the seductively cavernous space of the Ambika P3 venue in central London to witness the University of Westminster's fashion graduates runway show and get a glimpse of the future from the front row.

If there was one shared understanding by all present after the last model returned backstage at the end of the show, it was that the spirit of postmodernism has pervaded fashion education and is, in fact, far from dead in the sartorial world.

In the ways in which they purposefully mixed textures, colours and techniques, the 18 students selected to showcase their collections revealed a resolute appreciation for the postmodern sensibility. However, if there was little doubt that these students have demonstrated promising originality and the potential to be technically polished, the collections that took to the runway suggested that they could have benefitted from engaging with their tutors to obtain a stronger sense of creative and professional direction.

Daphne Stylianou - Photos courtesy of University of Westminster.

Furthermore, it was clear from reading the students' biographies in the impressive catalogue that their work experience with established designers had strongly anchored their creativity and dictated what would be produced for their inaugural collections.

In this sense, the influence of past creations by the likes of Meadham Kirchhoff or Jeremy Scott seemed to be more important than developing an original voice or accepting the academic guidance provided by tutors. And this is where the education provision and professional training of these students failed: eclectic design eccentricity, riotous experimentation with colour, texture and volumetric dimensions, and disregard for technical proficiency can be illusive symptoms of the postmodern creative fallacy insofar as they are easily mistaken by inexperienced students as being manifestations of accomplished originality. These young graduates need to understand that nothing can be further from the truth if they are to make it in the highly competitive world of fashion.

To start with, there was a perception that students had been either left to experiment with fabrics and techniques without a clear idea of what their design premises were or ignoring advice from their tutors would be the way forward.

Faced with this, it must have been tempting for some students to seek inspiration in the creations of the designers with whom they developed their work experience...read the full article