Floral menswear puts a smile on Pixie Geldof's face and wins top prize at graduate week

11 April 2012
The Weekender

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If you want to get ahead in the cut-throat world of fashion, it might just pay to study menswear. For the fourth year in a row, a menswear designer won the big prize at Graduate Fashion Week, the River Island Gold Award.




Jessica Au, a student at Ravensbourne College, scooped the £20,000 booty for her arrestingly printed menswear, which featured psychedelic prints in a striking colour palette of fuchsia, orange and navy. Au also won the Zandra Rhodes Textiles Award, beating off stiff competition from Northumbria University's Sarah Kennedy.

Pixie hoots: Pixie Geldof (left) and model Agyness Deyn, one of the judges at Graduate Fashion Week, at the gala finale at Earl's Court, London, and winner Jessica Au (right) collects her award

Manchester School of Art's Nabil El Nayal won Best Womenswear, with a dramatic collection in black and white which included a voluminous knife-pleated chiffon skirt, skinny black PVC panelled trousers and a white, high-necked ruffled blouse.

"We thought this was a wonderfully dramatic collection with a well thought-out theme," said Claudia Schiffer, one of the main judges.

She added that she had been "blown away" by the overall standard this year.

Other judges included model Agyness Deyn, designers Henry Holland and Gareth Pugh, and British Fashion Council chairman Harold Tillman. More than 1,000 students from 49 colleges across Britain showcased their work, culminating in last night's gala finale at Earls Court. Guests included Pixie Geldof.

Fuchsia shock: Floral menswear from overall winner Jessica Au, who also took the Zandra Rhodes Textiles Award; a ruffled blouse and chiffon pleated skirt from womenswear winner Nabil El Nayal

"Things are pretty tough here at the moment," said River Island's CEO, Richard Bradbury, referring to the current retail climate. "But nurturing talent is as important as ever  -  more so in a recession, because these designers represent our future. I'm pleased to see the quality of the collections has improved even more on last year."

Certainly the clothes that made it to last night's gala final were far more sellable than they would have been five years ago. Fashion college was traditionally a place to explore the wider reaches of your imagination, but 2008's crop of graduates proved that flights of fancy are out, and in their place, a steely commercialism.


THE WINNERS

Zandra Rhodes Textiles Award and River Island Gold Award: Jessica Au, Ravensbourne

Womenswear Award: Nabil El Nayal, Manchester

Menswear Award: Domingo Rodriguez, Liverpool John Moores

Pringle of Scotland Knitwear Award: Ria Thomas, Nottingham Trent

Creative Cutting Award: Tim Rhys Evans, Manchester





 

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