NTU Fashion Design and Fashion Knitwear shows

On Thursday and Friday evenings I went along to the final shows of the Nottingham Trent students of Fashion Knitwear, and Fashion Design. With it being an increasingly reputable University for Arts courses, I was really interested in what the students had to offer, but I left with really mixed feelings. There were the designs that grabbed me immediately, for being beautiful, fresh, innovative and flattering, and there were designers whose shock factor got a bit samey after a while.

I feel like this post could be a bit, 'Emperor's New Clothes'. I could sit and say everything was wonderful and so much was different, like many are quick to do in order to please and conform. However I'm going to be completely honest: I'm someone who appreciates timelessness, craftsmanship, originality, and strong, sustainable design. Call me an unimaginative prude, but I really cannot see the point in designing a jumpsuit where your arm is stuck in a sleeve which is attached to your rear, it just doesn't look good! The pattern cutting was very clever no doubt, but how I wished that skill had been used to make a design which made the model look amazing! Maybe that's not what the designer was going for. I realise some will read this and argue that Fashion is Art, but Art is a very objective thing, this is just me being honest about how I walked away feeling. Basically, I was really surprised by the amount of students who were creating designs that were so unadaptable to real life rather than the runway. 

Okay so with that little rant over I shall now talk about some of the designers that made me want to run backstage, throw their collections over my shoulders, give them a kiss for being so clever and run away knowing I had some serious talent in my arms, even though I would certainly not be fitting in to the tiny model sizes. I got so excited each time something emerged that I could envisage on someone other than the model adorning it, for we're not all 6 ft and flawless. I just felt really proud of these designers. Although I knew nothing about them other than the name I had in front of me on the list, and only had about 5 outfits to judge them by, there were a few which immediately stood out as 'ones to watch'. I really want to take another look at several of these students' work because a few seconds on the runway didn't satisfy my appetite, so I will be trying to do so before focusing on their work in more detail. Until then, here's some photos. I'll post collections that provoked the mixture of responses from me, so you can make up your own mind. (Click on images to see them full size.)
Harriet x

KNITWEAR

Designers - top to bottom left to right: Natalie Stead, Claire-Louise Wright, Kristabel Plummer, Maria Zwerger, Gemma Cooper, Sneya Rajani, Emily Derrick.

FASHION DESIGN

Designers - top to bottom: Alice Wedge, Florenze Wong, Megan Bovingdon, Lauren Stevenson, Chloe Mason, Harry Crowe, Charlotte Rutherwood.