UCLan Fashion Show attracts a crowd
The University of Central Lancashire (UCLan) has brought student collections fresh from London’s Graduate Fashion Week catwalk to Preston for its annual Fashion Show.
Eighteen students showed off their work on the Venue 53 stage in front of fashion industry experts, business leaders, local dignitaries and devoted fashion followers on Thursday, 21 June. This included Rose Connor, whose collection featured in the Graduate Fashion Week Talent of Tomorrow 2018 campaign and The Guardian’s feature on sustainable fashion student collections’ post London show and Shelly (Qianhui) Lin, whose work was included in a photoshoot for Disorder Magazine.
Graduate Fashion Week is one of the biggest events in the industry’s calendar and showcases the very best of student work from around the globe, giving a platform to the next generation of fashion designers and promoters.
It was another successful year for UCLan, with several award wins and nominations. Fashion promotion student Beth Wainwright won the Bonmarché Fashion For All Award and was shortlisted for the Boux Avenue Lingerie Award for her ‘One Nude? How Rude!’ campaign for Wonderbra and fashion design student Hannah Morley will see her design sold across the country after winning a competition set by international retailer Fat Face.
"It gives a glimpse into the talent and dedication of our fashion students and embodies all the hallmarks of professionalism you would expect from one of our flagship courses."
Four students were selected as finalists for the best collections of Graduate Fashion Week; Alexandra Mcmaster, Sophia Parkinson, Yasmin Siddique and Zijing Wang with Sophia making it through to the prestigious ‘Gala Show’ on the final day of the four day event. In total, UCLan students were nominated for eleven awards.
Fat face competition winner Hannah Morley said: “It feels so surreal to actually have won the competition. When I saw it I thought it would just be really good practice and the body of work would be great for my portfolio. I never at all imagined I would win.”
Speaking on the evening, UCLan Vice-Chancellor Professor Mike Thomas said: “Tonight’s show is a replica of our Graduate Fashion Week London show, which, as it does every year, received rave reviews.
“It gives a glimpse into the talent and dedication of our fashion students and embodies all the hallmarks of professionalism you would expect from one of our flagship courses. Over the years, students from our fashion design programme and related courses have achieved great success and industry recognition during this showcase season and this year was no exception. I want to congratulate this year’s cohort for once again representing the University at the very highest of standards.”
Graduate Fashion Week is an annual celebration of the up and coming stars of the fashion industry, showcasing work from more than 800 students from 42 universities - including international universities from China, Russia, Milan, Paris, The Netherlands and the Far East.
View images from UCLan’s Fashion Show on the UCLan Flickr gallery.
