Graduate Fashion Week is not only a platform for aspiring designers, but it provides space for graduates leading the way in a multitude of other disciplines including textile design, styling and creative direction, fashion photography and marketing.
Three students from CSVPA’s BA (Hons) Fashion Branding and Creative Communications course presented their final projects at this year’s Graduate Fashion Week. With each of the students receiving at least one award nomination, the quality of their work speaks for itself.
Elina Beskupska
Elina received nominations for The Terry Mansfield Fashion Publication Award, The Fashion Moving Image Award and The Fashion Styling & Creative Direction Award.
“Having my work exhibited at Graduate Fashion Week was a huge honour for me” Elina said, before explaining about her final project entitled Tenditna (Ukrainian) – a tender woman.
“Tenditna is a mix of art, literature and fashion content, interwoven into one publication. It is a mixed-media book, that explores femininity through the lenses of visual art and written content. Tenditna is a source of inspiration, guidance and style.
Patriarchy poisons the experience of liking and enjoying traditionally feminine things. By using the aesthetics of hyper-femininity, Tenditna reclaims girlhood from this condescension.
Tenditna is feminine, it is girly, it is feminism and feminism is liberation.”
Arif Shahrudin
Arif was nominated for The Fashion Styling & Creative Direction Award.
When asked about their experience at GFW, Arif said: “Having my work exhibited, I feel really happy. Little me would never dream of me being like a model…It’s been really fun.”
“My vision is based on my generational perspective as a Gen-Z creative” Arif explained. “Growing up with a deep attachment to the internet, global culture and fast-paced methods of media consumption has nurtured my ability to see that which other generations cannot. Instead of seeing high art and high fashion, I see the little wonders in everything.”
“Memes and videos that previous generations would write off, I find funny and inspiring. In this sense, fashion must be built from the world around us and the interactions we have with people and the art they create.
My contribution to the Gen-Z network is conveyed through Helmi, a fashion brand that is built with the people around me to share my creativity with them. It is the juxtaposition of living vividly in the real world and being so connected to a virtual space that defines my Gen-Z identity.
I would be nowhere without understanding that beauty is a stupid concept. What is ugly and what is beautiful? Why does any of it matter? I pride myself on seeing through these labels to something more visceral, my vision is what makes me and the people around me feel good. This is the atmosphere of irreverent pastiche that pervades all of my work. To subvert the expectations of fashion, you have to rebuild from the ground up what it means to be fashionable. It is a personal project of how to breed confidence in yourself. That is why the Helmi brand, whilst evolving from my friends in the form of a creative collective, ultimately ends with me feeling and looking my best. My idea of fashion is the prism through which I channel my own pathway into the world.”
Holly McGroy
Holly was nominated for The Fashion Innovation Award.
“For my final major project, I created the Second Skin platform that promotes the beauty of bioscience.
This responded to the urgent need to harness science to transform the ecosystem of the fashion and beauty industry.”
“As we shift to a cleaner eco-modern world, I have constructed a space that will bring the wonders of bio- science to the consumer in an organic and holistic manner. Second Skin is driven by the concept of radical transparency and eco-integrity. To show that the scientific future of beauty can be brighter, cleaner, and ecologically neutral. Second Skin is radical by nature – calm by design.”
Interested in studying Fashion Branding and Creative Communications at University? Learn more about our BA (Hons) Fashion Branding & Creative Communications course.
