Rebekah Rai

Rebekah Ria's exquisite costumes for Peter Pan.

"I reimagined 'the Tale of Peter Pan' as a contemporary multicultural ballet, representing how internationally beloved the story has become. I wanted my designs to fly away from the stuffy Edwardian setting and towards a modern and diverse world. To achieve this I incorporated silhouettes of traditional clothing and patterns from various ethnicities. My Tinkerbell design is constructed of organza and fibre optic filaments, giving the effect of a weightless and prickly ball of light floating about the stage." Rebekah Rai 

Aurélie Fontan II

Aurélie Fontan's graduation collection 'T E N S E G R I T Y //' was full of movement, the depth of plastic adding to this effect. Aurélie Fontan's work focuses on design for sustainability, exploiting both craft and technological innovations. This collection encompasses the wearer like a cage, creating an exoskeleton of plastic, a meccano like encasement. 

At the graduate fashion week Aurélie's collection was awarded the Marks and Spencer Womenswear Award, The Dame Vivienne Westwood Sustainable and Ethical award and the Catwalk Textiles Award.

"I am a very hands-on designer and the whole collection started from the materials I was using. Being able to create and manufacture my textiles from scratch was an exciting process. Specifically, I have worked in a science lab (Ascus Art & Science) that is the only public-access lab in the UK, and they have kindly allowed me to develop my bio-textile, so that I was able to grow my own dress." Aurélie Fontan

" TENSEGRITY is a collection that originated from the alarming effects that our human activities have on our environment. As a young designer, I felt that my responsibility lies in the active research of low environmental impact materials and processes. TENSEGRITY is a combination of the holistic approach I have taken through various design strategies, including Design for Disassembly, Design for Slower Consumption and Design for Waste Minimization.

The collection is based on several closed-loop systems, involving an alternative seaming method that allows different fabrics (wool, Modal, cork) to be separated when recycled. The range also includes bio-textiles, in the form of a grown fabric that is 100% biodegradable and put together with soluble cable ties made from corn starch. The garments themselves are mainly cut with a zero-waste construction of panels layered in tessellation. Moreover, the lasercut textures are created based on a double helix DNA waste-free pattern." Aurélie Fontan

Hazel Steven

Hazel Steven's graduate textile collection for ECA was driven by examining the visibility and invisibility of the self in regards to LGBTQ+ pride and equality. It considers how the current state of world politics may necessitate people to conceal their true identity for their own protection. Hazel's textiles were a contrast of vibrant, in your face, sloganized, sequinned extravagance, and subtle almost invisible concealment, with clear threads and sequins used on sheer fabric holding secret messages. 

Rhys McKenna

Rhys McKenna 'Orbital Agency Library': Configuration' 

"My research is driven by sculptural and painterly creative disruption in fashion cutting and modularity. My design work is a direct response to the crafting of a library of pattern components, each reflecting a diverse array of research interests. These include an exploration of the modernist sensibilities of Henry Ford and the explosive collisions of the Large Hadron Collider. I have also introduced methods of experimental improvisation and improbability advocated by the author Douglas Adams, whilst enacting painterly working methods of the Royal Court Painter." Rhys McKenna

Alison Wibmer

Wonderful woollen creations by Alison Wibmer for her graduate collection at ECA which won a Craft Scotland Graduate Award.

"Raw fibres are carded, felted, spun, embroidered, printed and dyed by hand in an extensive exploration of wool as a material. Through meticulous technical sampling, techniques such as hand spinning fibres, CAD embroidery, felting and print go beyond surface decoration to enhance the structure and functionality of wool, encouraging breathability, insulation and strength.​Each labour- intensive stage of process is to be celebrated. Looking closer at the shapes and patterns in process: the tools, materials and rhythms, inspires the aesthetic of the textile outcomes." Alison Wibmer 

Leanne Dewar

Leanne Dewar's degree show for Drawing and Painting at ECA was "Anthropomorphic"(2018) an installation of textiles collaged into creatures.

"My practice is centred around the creation of anthropomorphic forms through the use of second hand clothing materials. By utilising a variety of clothing types with my practice I can create personifications out with a social context and undefined by a gender or age bracket. These types of materials are easily collected, cheap to buy and can often be found lying around the streets or gifted by friends and family, using these types of materials within my work emphasises that art can come from anywhere and expensive materials don’t always guarantee the work will be more successful. My work incorporates playful experimentation with the collaboration and composition of clothing materials, using a tongue and cheek approach to create humorous figures that appear to have their own animated personhood. An important outcome within my art practice is manipulating the materials to present movement within the work, bringing the forms to life." Leanne Dewar

Liam Johnson

Stunning, translucent, silhouettes created by Liam Johnson for his graduate collection at London Central Saint Martins. 

“In terms of the fabric, I chose fabrics that felt very cheap to me ‒ flat, nasty, unexpected.’ Using this as a starting point, Liam’s challenge was to elevate his textiles to a luxury level. He focussed on the intersection of two-dimensionality and three-dimensionality, bringing flat printed elements to life in 3D form. An important aspect of his process came from an awareness of the space around each individual piece, examining where the 2D meets the 3D and where the 3D meets the space. “I was trying to break everything down to its original form, it’s most abstract shape.”Liam  Johnson