Fashion will always inspire me and I was thrilled when I received an invite to Graduate Fashion Week to see the collections from NUA – my route into town takes me past the window of the fashion studio so for the past few weeks I have seen the pieces take shape so it was great to finally see them on the runway.
With my industry pass and tickets in hand I headed first to take a look at the exhibition hall featuring collections from the various university graduates.
Mannequins lined the halls showcasing the amazing designs from the students – I saw many references to current design – Gucci among them alongside classic and vintage inspired pieces from Dior, Chanel and Valentino. These were a few of my favourites.
Sequins, 70’s vibes and classic trench with a touch of Burberry.
Loved these – the cut and the styling was wonderful.
More glitter, Gucci and Chanel?
Ready to see the first show of day (for me anyway) was the NUA catwalk – waiting in the queue with my fellow fashionista companion for the day Jordan from Jordan & Fashion who I met earlier in the year at Norwich Fashion Week.
Just a quick Instagram post and we both had Gucci-esque shoes!!
The running order – all set and ready to go!
My camera skills with a phone leave something to be desired – one thing on my “To Do” list – learn to take better pictures with both phone and camera!! But here are my attempts to show my favourites from the show.
Sophie Fitzjohn, Sophie Culling and Laura Plumstead.
I was REALLY impressed with the design, cut and finish, so professional and well executed concepts and cohesive collections. If you want to get a proper view of the all the collections take a look at the Instagram page.
One thing that I was so pleased about was that colour featured strongly in the collections with orange being the stand out shade but my favourite collections was from Sophie Fitzjohn whose entire pieces were shocking Schiaparelli pink!!
I LOVED this collection – simple elegant with touches of Dior and Chanel.
The collection from Sandra Backes was also fabulous – such a bold choice of blue mixed with monochrome black and white.
Such a bold choice but so striking!
In between shows I wandered around taking in more of the fashion on show, had a chat to some of the students about their inspiration for their designs and took in a talk from Hilary Alexander in conversation with Carol Kane from Boohoo. And I even caught up with my lovely friend Kerry Curl who herself graduated this year from NUA Photography degree course – she was shooting the shows and backstage.
I had such a fabulous day taking in all the amazing fashion and one final picture the outfit of the day – the weather was not kind so the planned one took a back seat to this one!! One negative on the day was I must say the un-inspiring outfits from the people wandering around – I don’t really know what I was expecting but definitely not a sea of black and lack lustre imagination – or maybe I was and just hoping!!
Vintage 60’s wool Chanel style coat from Retreat Vintage, blouse vintage Hennes, Gucci style skirt via Ebay, shoes Top Shop and vintage Dior bag one of my best ever Ebay finds!! Hair courtesy of the wind and rain!! (Photo – thanks to Jordan Wake).
The Graduate Shows are coming soon to Norwich so if you get a chance to go along and see the fashion design, photography, fine art, textiles and other courses feature it is well worth it. I can’t to see them all and for next year’s Graduate Fashion week as I will definitely go back.
