From big blooming granny pants to Wetherspoons carpets, this year’s cohort of BA designers from the University of Westminster have shown that creativity can illuminate even in the darkest of times
In a video recorded by Westminster students in the thick of lockdown, Kristin Sigus aptly describes the turmoil of graduating in a pandemic as “like working during war time”. The last upheaval, then, came over the weekend, when all 31 students debuted one piece from their final collections as part of London Fashion Week. For Sigus, this erupted into a pagoda-shouldered mound of deadstock fabric, which she had fused together to form a gargantuan, multi-layered coat. The rigmarole of the past year may well have felt like a battle but this year’s BA cohort from the University of Westminster have surely come out victorious.
From Molly Sellars' upcycled, engineered hybrids (think puffer jackets which unpack into hammocks and trousers that rebutton as quilts) to William Craven’s campy clutch bag, which parodies a giant bottle of poppers, each collection is underpinned by an entirely unique set of motivations. It would seem that most designers this year, though, have forged their offerings from waste material – for both economical and ethical reasons – while using their creations to reflect explicitly on themes of identity, be that race, gender, or sexuality. Others, however, were propelled by the more abstract, emotional experiences of the last year, taking to fashion as a way to work through long-lingering feelings of isolation, like Esme Marsh.
Remarkably, the vast majority of these collections have been produced without access to college facilities, with all tutorials relegated to Zoom. “The students could have used this as an excuse to complain, to produce less, to not try so hard, not to experiment, instead they rose up, they adapted, they pushed their creativity to even greater achievement. They used their solitude to dig deep and find out what they were capable of,” says Rosie Wallin, who directs Westminster’s fashion course. Below, we take a look at just a few of the talented designers that are graduating this year.
Toby Vernon
Toby Vernon’s Return to Order was a deft, and delicate, application of craftsmanship. Hand-felted wool jackets and intricate, glass-beaded panels gave Vernon’s final collection – for which he was awarded a first class honours – a real sense of tactility. That same sensitivity was taken through to silhouette, too, with amply-cult tailoring, crafted from one piece patterns, just skimming over the body’s frame. In forging buckles and buttons from sterling silver set and precious stones, Vernon’s fashion practice is less about function, all about feeling.
WILL BOND
Though he’s only just graduating this year, Will Bond has already had stints at Louis Vuitton, designed prints for Supriya Lele, and collaborated with Stefan Cooke. Bond’s graduate collection, White Lodge, embodied the designer’s distinct, almost medieval, handwriting – think ear hole bonnets, leather banner bags, and horseshoe cable knit jumpers. Shot in the bowels of a forest, there is something otherworldly in the way Bond chose to present his models, captured as if they were scurrying away from a car headlight. It was as if Mr. Tumnus had wandered into all those classic Goosebumps books from the 90s.
Caitlin Yates
Caitlin Yates, who is already stocked at 50M and Aune, built her collection from old make-up wipes, pub memorabilia, and Wetherspoons carpets. Dubbed Cotswold Luvvies, Yates’ eight-piece offering came from a desire to highlight the slam of austerity and rural poverty within the West Country. As such, tweed blazers have been refashioned into fraying hoodies while the (famously Tory) Wetherspoons carpet gets reconstituted as a second-skin lycra top. It’s “using clothing to break down hierarchical connotations associated with the area, through destruction of classed rules and regulations,” as Yates puts it.
Holly Kingsley
“The Hollysworld girl doesn’t take adult life too seriously, she would happily stomp around in pink ruffles whilst completing mundane household tasks,” Holly Kingsley says. It’s clear the designer has relied on this sense of humour when approaching her final collection, too – parts of which were inspired by images of 80s bridesmaids with their dresses accidentally tucked into their knickers. Accordingly, huge satin knickers are wrapped around dainty slips, while old bedsheets have been appropriated into englarded, jumpsuit bloomers. Holly’s outlook blends childhood fancy dress, mundane domestic frills, and the unexpected thrills of lingerie – interrogating the idea of ‘dressing up’ in its many guises.
Christine Ha
Prior to studying at Westminster, Christine Ha spent ten years working in pharmacy, manning the operating rooms of The University of California’s San Francisco Medical Center. So to be graduating with a BA in fashion design is not only brave, but a seismic change in lifestyle. Ha’s final collection, perhaps only ironically titled Minor Feelings, matches these levels of dramatism. What the designer calls a “quilted puffer coat” is really more of a couture gown – swooping and undulating at all angles. Similarly, a duchess satin pinstripe suit multiplies into mounds of padded lumps and bumps, while steel mesh corsets fan out of the body like smoke.