By Lorna Hill Kingston College's young fashion designers showcased their designs at their annual end of year catwalk Fashion Show last Wednesday.

The event featured work by students from the National Diploma in Fashion and Clothing, Foundation Diploma in Art and Design, and BA (Hons) Fashion and Textiles and took place at The Arthur Cotterell Theatre, Kingston College.

It was a collaborative event involving students from National Diploma in Technical Theatre, students from Hair and Beauty along with Fashion students. There was a Showcase of the Bentalls Scarf Competition from the BA Fashion and Textiles students.

Students selected their own diverse themes and created garments based on extensive research, design development and textile exploration. Collections were eclectic in theme, ranging from explorations into the students’ own cultural heritage to a collection inspired by the Australian performance artist and designer Leigh Bowery.

Group collections were particularly strong this year. The show opened with a first year National Diploma collection entitled ‘Structural Aesthetics’. This collection was a dynamic synthesis of architectural concepts, shapes and colours to create a futuristic fusion of cultural interpretations from the first year National Diploma Fashion students.

Students took inspiration from a range of architectural references for their Structural Aesthetics Design assignment and constructed their designs for this show. This was followed by a scarf collection inspired by the ‘English Country Garden’ and showcases designs from the first year BA Fashion and Textiles students who hand printed scarves that have successfully sold in Bentalls over the last two months. This was a competition project set by accessory buyers at Bentalls, who briefed the students at the start of the assignment. In Show 1, a prize was awarded to the students who sold the most scarves.

The 2nd year group collection, entitled ‘Black Light’ was a dramatic and spectacular collection. Caroline Alexander, National Diploma Course Leader comments: “This was inspired by the Viktor and Rolf Exhibition at The Barbican Art Gallery, in particular their "Black Light" collection, from Spring Summer 1999. Students investigated the designer's conceptual and irreverent approach to fashion as well as the notion of 'contrast' and 'opposites' - masculine and feminine, sad and happy, black and white, upside-down and back-to-front, light and dark."

The range of work from the National Diploma students was exceptional. Not only did the garments shown convey the students’ creative flair, they also reflected a high level of garment construction and pattern cutting skills with a high percentage of students gaining Distinctions grades.

Caroline Alexander, National Diploma in Fashion and Clothing course leader, said: “This year proved to be an exceptional fashion show, reflecting the commitment, talent and diversity of the fashion students on the BTEC ND Fashion and Clothing but also the BA (Hons) Fashion and Foundation Diploma in Art and Design courses. It was truly a team effort and would not been possible without the hard work and enthusiasm of staff and students alike. The show was made particularly special by the collaboration with ND Music students who played live before, during and after the fashion show, as well as the involvement of Media and Performance Studies staff and students. I am extremely proud of what has been achieved and we will work hard to build on the success of this year’s show. "

Kate Winskil, the winner of the Bentalls prize for best selling scarf design, said: “'It was wonderful of Bentalls to give us the chance to present our work directly to the customer- and the fact that people wanted to buy our scarves was fantastic and is a real impetus to keep designing.”

Natasha Lee, winner of the George Low prize, added: “The fashion show was a great end to my two years at Kingston College on the National Diploma in Fashion and Clothing. It was great for myself and other students to share our achievements with family and friends. I thought the standard of work was amazing this year and I am sure the standard will continue to rise with the help of the fantastic team of fashion staff and the new facilities at Anstee House.”