DATE: 18th June 2020. PLACE: Industrial Ambika P3. TIME: 16.30 pm
Celebrating individualism and technical excellence, the B.A. Graduate Show features original collections of over 100 styled looks from 22 students, showing a range of concepts and competencies from working with 3D printing and embroidery to exquisit tailoring and theatrical graphics. “The variety and breadth of the collections shown today is testament to the calibre and dedication of the students and the staff team who support them.
Brandon Choi
Brandon Choi
Brandon Choi
Vanessa Bon
Vanessa Bon
Vanessa Bon: “The future is female and full of fierce bitches.” The message from Westminster BA student Vanessa Bon is loud and clear. Inspired by heroines in retrofuturistic films such as The Fifth Element and Metropolis, the Mexican designer explores fetish through modern sportswear. In doing so, she is comparing past visions of future females. “I create a garment and then put it through a filter as if it’s ‘on acid’,” she says. Combining graphic panelling with more sensual fabrics like velvet, tulle and organza, she creates armour-like pieces which exaggerate the female form. Her reference images are stuck on her bedroom wall, and at times have been saved as her phone background and her laptop screensaver. By constantly referring back to her moodboards, Vanessa feels that her work becomes “becomes both conscious and subconscious – more authentic.”
Steven Stokey-Daley
Steven Stokey-Daley
Steven Stokey-Daley: Only three weeks before the deadline, BA designer Steven Stokey-Daley repurposed his work to create the final garments for the upcoming BA show. “I had been working on an entirely different collection for four months and had a last-minute panic in January,” says the Liverpool-born designer. Inspired by the traditions and ritualism of British boarding schools Harrow and Eton, his collection is “a romantic exploration of British public-school culture through queer eccentricity, frivolity and fanciful excess.” Through the lens of Brideshead Revisited, Steven depicts a 2020 update to elitist education. Building on his experiences working at Alexander McQueen and Tom Ford, he creates “considered and substantial menswear products” by referencing historical imagery, vintage garments and contemporary details. Regatta flower-adorned hats, white wool tennis coats and hypermasculine outerwear combine to “emulate the confusion of a systematically ‘homosocial’ culture.”
Jonty K. Mellmann
Jonty K. Mellmann
Jonty K. Mellmann: What do you get when you cross a group of English country gentlemen with a bunch of acid techno ravers? Jonty K. Mellmann has an idea. For his graduate collection, the designer envisions a new way to dress for the rave: ‘Crusty Countryside Partywear’. “It’s argyle meets acid techno, tweed for terrorcore fans and neon everything,” he says. Winner of the 2019 Student Excellence award for his first year work, Jonty has experience from Cottweiler, Hanger Inc, Nasir Mazhar and Walter Van Beirendonck. His BA collection is awash with classic staples of rave-wear – puffa jackets, acid house smiley faces – mish-mashed with tweeds and Wellington boots by Ruth Angel Edwards. While paying homage to rave culture and style, this collection also holds a very personal connection for Jonty – a jacket painted by his mum, the artist Susan Douglass. It’s a feast for the eyes, putting forward the designer’s own idea of rave clothing with “deadstock fabrics mixed with hi-vis and a patchwork fetish.”
Dominic Huckbody
Dominic Huckbody
Dominic Huckbody: “If I wouldn’t want my boyfriend, my friends, or myself to wear it, I struggle to justify why I’m making something.” So says menswear designer Dominic Huckbody, whose BA collection for the Westminster show was inspired by the friction between intimacy and autonomy. “It’s essential for me to feel an affinity to the boy I’m designing for,” the former Wales Bonner intern adds. “I explored this by looking at references to naturalistic and idealistic classical sculpture while taking an indulgent view on estranged images of intimacy.” Juxtaposing distressed materials, soft draping and hazy tones, the collection reflects the personal intimacy Dominic has with his designs: “The collection grew to become an investigation into each garment and how it could reflect the warmth, familiarity or ideas of longing.”
Dominic Huckbody
Dominic Huckbody
Tumisola Ladega
Tumisola Ladega
Tumisola Ladega
Marina Patalano
Marina Patalano
“Welcome to a universe that glorifies supernatural beings and those downtrodden by their social surroundings,” says British-Italian designer Marina Patalano. Hoping to represent historically marginalised communities, Marina has taken inspiration from the ritualism of native folk dress to envision a radical heroine who “conquers her fate of damsel in distress.” This collection – entitled ‘The Complete Tales of Various Women and Others as Subaltern Natives’ – can be described easily in a word: whimsical. Although she is taking on fairly serious subject matter, the clothes are bright and wildly patterned, with curious proportions and silhouettes. Having interned at Walter Van Beirendonck, Trois Quarts Atelier, Peter Pilotto, Richard Malone and Mimi Wade, Marina has peppered their influences throughout her collection. Textures and prints clash haphazardly, fighting for attention. Peaches, stars and floral motifs provide a playful element across shirts, and shoes. Nothing about this collection is boring.
Marina Patalano
Marina Patalano
Marina Patalano
Polly Henderson
Polly Henderson
Polly Henderson
Polly Henderson
Polly Henderson
Polly Henderson
Fennula Butterfiels
Fennula Butterfiels
Fennula Butterfiels ”It’s a playful take on purity and innocence versus deviant sexuality,” says BA designer Fennuala Butterfield. Inspired by 1970s kitsch, she looked to religious Christian garments, B-movies and adult films as her references. Her collection combines the silhouettes of traditional nun habits with the lively palette of 1970s makeup ads. The designer plays with sexual duality in her textiles by combining “sex shop” PVC and virgin cotton. Her message speaks to female sexuality, exploring the intensity of the Madonna-whore complex, but ultimately focusing on the contemporary woman’s ability to choose her own sexual freedom. Having explored contrasting takes on femininity during internships at Simone Rocha, Balmain and H&M, Fennuala is ecstatic to be presenting her own vision at London Fashion Week. “It has been my dream ever since I applied for the course, and I can’t believe it has come true,” she says.
Jakub Nowacki
Jakub Nowacki
Jakub Nowacki: “I’m a little bit of a punk, so I decided that working for other people isn’t for me,” says Jakub Nowacki. For the Polish designer, gut feelings are everything. When creating his BA collection, he let his primal instincts guide his designs. Jakub starts every look by draping, creating a shape and experimenting with the silhouette repetitively until his intuition stops him. His work and his approach go beyond fashion and more abstractly, into art. After working for Nasir Mazhar during his 2nd year, he declined to take on an internship year to conserve his unique design process. “I love the fact that the way I create is so different,” he says. “It blurs the boundaries between art and fashion and I didn’t want to lose that and have someone else’s design aesthetic rub off on me.” As for the graduate show, he admits he’s excited, but isn’t impressed by the hype. “It’s just clothing at the end of the day so I’m trying to stay calm.”
Hannah Sosna
Hannah Sosna
Hannah Sosna
