The fashion graduates that caught our eye
Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, fashion graduation shows were cancelled. While working on the collections must have been stressful for the students and access to materials, supplies and machines were limited during the lockdown and quarantine, not having a final show and exhibiting your work is an anti-climax.
We watched the online presentations, scrolled the websites and selected projects of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp, the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague and Central Saint Martins in London that caught our eye.
The Fashion Department Of The Royal Academy Of Fine Arts, Antwerp
Creative studio Random Studio created a contemporary virtual environment and showcased the graduate collections on the digital platform, WWWSHOWWW. The result is a presentation that combined the physical experience of a catwalk with the possibilities of a digital environment, enriching both worlds. You can see the full show here.
Florentina Leitner
The collection Midnight Vertigo by Florentina Leitner is inspired by the 60s, the feeling of vertigo, Hitchcock and Louise Bourgeois. Hypnotic spirals are translated into prints and draped big sleeves. You can see the beautiful 3D website Florentina created for the collection here.
Marie Martens
The collection Swans by Marie Martens was inspired by the elegance and jet set of the sixties. She created volume through the use of maltase and big sleeves into feminine but strong silhouettes. Delicate embroidery and handcrafted details embellish the garments looking for new dimensions in textile. You can see more here.
Nico Verhagen
Nico Verhagen’s collection Styx combined shamanistic references with sportswear influences, creating garments out of deadstock materials and scraps. The images and narrative, a voyage to the North by a group of guys that made their clothes on the way, could be the starting point for a video game scenario.
Royal Academy of Arts, KABK, The Hague
The Fashion department of the Royal Academy of The Arts, The Hague created an online platform Exposed where students could present their work. In September, there will be an exhibition with timeslots, you can find more information here.
Hanakin Henriksson
Ode To The Traces of Life by Hanakin Henriksson is a protest against newness as a definition of beauty. Instead, the focus is out on character and signs of life of the materials, to raise our appreciation for the life and history of garments.
Inge Vaandering
Sticky Fingers, An Act of Matter by Inge Vaandering is a dialogue between human and the object. The character of the material and the touch is more important than the visual effect. When creating, repairing or treating a fabric the soul shifts from the designer to the object.
Central Saint Martins, London
Esme Woodruff
Esme Woodruff’s collection explores the transience of online self-presentation and our innate desire to be fully in control of how the world sees us or at least the version of ourselves that we are ‘continuously editing, cropping, uploading, deleting.’ Woodruffʼs designs are intended to dress the ‘in-between’ – the gulf between a personʼs digital persona and real-world self.
Conner Ives
Conner Ives created a bulbous floral gown, named ‘Couture Girl’, which took five months to hand sew and exists in the middle ground between couturier Charles James and Kim Kardashian pregnant in flower print Givenchy at the Met Gala, 2013. You can see a video of the creation of the dress here.
Jessan Macatangay
The collection by Jessan Macatangay is about finding beauty and power in a struggle. Comprised of sculptural shapes, primarily made from reclaimed chairs, which envelop the body, forged in an array of matte and chrome finishes; contrasted by swathes of pleated lycra and jersey.
Banner image, Power to change by Isabelle Lempik, Royal Academy of Fine Arts, Antwerp