It's the final day to see Central St Martins graduate shows including Harry Henley-Freegard from Fashion Print with his project ‘The Art of Dying’. Since an epiphany at Highgate cemetery, his concept has been to kill himself off as the ultimate sustainable sacrifice. He has safety-pinned his collection from serendipitous salvaged socks to inject satirical fun into the fashion world. See his memorial plates and self-help books on display in Show TWO today.
Harry has been selected for his innovation in the MullenLowe Group NOVA Awards. Check back tomorrow for details of how you can vote for your favourite in the final fourteen selected students to win at the award ceremony on July 5th.
Congratulations to the Fashion / Textiles and Marketing students at CSM for this year's show! The styling of each collection was incredible from the shoes to the headwear and all of the accessories inbetween. I was so impressed!
The general feeling was quite dystopian and a bit scary with models summoning up zombie realness, stomping down the runway! But I could see a heavy influence from the House Of Beauty and Culture in the materials and tailoring reflecting the work of Christopher Nemeth and Judy Blame. For that I applaud the ICA in last year's show on Judy's work and the collective. Many collections echoed this aesthetic with hessian, twine, drift wood and twigs tangled into seams and some were even woven basketry and crocheted plastic bags. Here are my highlights which included the "L'Oreal Professional Young Talent" award winner Goom Heo's look at the top here, constructed of layers of reclaimed t-shirts. I really loved Sarah Ansah's 3D knitwear from metallic yarn and Tolu Cocker's screenprints of HipHop caricatures on denim. All really exciting from a textile perspective! See more over on the CSM feed.
"Liberty in Fashion" , the new exhibition at The Fashion Textile Museum celebrates the 140th anniversary of the London Institution. From Orientalism and Aesthetic dress in the 19th century, through Art Nouveau and Art Deco in the early 20th century, and the revival of all of these styles since the 1950s. Not only is this a typically beautiful show brimming with pieces you've never seen before, but its the upstairs room that particularly excited me. "The Art of Pattern: Susan Collier and Sarah Campbell for Liberty 1961 -77" has all the ephemera from the background of the print process. I LOVE this kind of thing for the chance to see sketchbooks, scrapbooks, tests, prototypes......... all the glorious workings of a cosmic mind in colour. Its absolutely beautiful and a great acknowledgment of the fundamental creativity in devising shape, space and hue by hand. These repeats were formulated by piecing together tessellation's without any CAD and crazily cosmic as a result. Go and see for yourself and look up the full list of events and classes that are running to coincide.
