The Art School sparkled with excitement on the 4th of March, hosting their annual fashion show for 3rd year students at GSA. When everyone took seats, the DJ started playing music and the side lights on the catwalk started flashing. The music was so intense, our hearts started to harmonise with the bass. When the first model stepped on the catwalk, the whole picture became complete and the room filled with beauty.
The show took off with 2nd year fashion students’ creations: white shirts, jeans, fur coats and black dresses, and 3rd year students’ tailoring works. These students used different sources of inspiration to create their pieces. Some were influenced by Victoria Beckham, some were inspired by the architecture of Glasgow and others looked back into history to apply the ideas in a modern way. These items are very wearable, yet unique. A white shirt and jeans are pieces everyone needs in their wardrobes, but these young, talented designers created silhouettes that make these everyday pieces outstanding.
The other part of the show contained 25 mini collections – 3 outfits – from 25 3rd year students, studying fashion or textile design. They created different sets, concentrating on embroidery, knit, print, weave or fashion design. The students were given a specific source of inspiration. All designs had use lace as an inspiration, and they each category got a country and culture to investigate. Print used East and West Africa (Maasai and Masquerade); knit concentrated on Peru and Ecuador; weave looked into Palestine’s thobe traditions; embroidery based its design on Romania; and fashion design explored Inuit culture (Yupik, Eskimo, Inupiat).What amazes me is the fact that the categories all had the same task given, but the collections could not be different. The designers’ personalities shine through their collections, their creativity and talent were awarded with great applause and sighs of amazement at the show.
To pick a few (it is really hard though); Jane Maguire took inspiration from the Inuit culture’s children’s wear and the lace in children’s collars, whilst Chris McBurney used the Inuit Myths of the Quallupilluk (child catcher) as a basis of his designs. That explains the babies in the models’ hands. I was honestly trying to figure out what is the designer trying to express with those. Now I know, and it makes more sense than I expected. This is what I call art.
Ciaran Moore’s menswear print project was inspired by maps of Nairobi. What an interesting thing to use in fashion design! He created futuristic and modern graphic print from the street formation, creating a lace like structure from them. He was using African tunics as a basis for his silhouettes, which in hand with the prints gives a very unique and modern piece of art.
One of my favourites was Abigal Jubb’s collection with the combination of brown, rich texture and the romantic lace, inspired by the array of layers Inuit people wear and luxurious renaissance lace. The seemingly two very different theme lead to this feminine, individual design.
GSA fashion show was sponsored by Dr. Martens, providing shoes for 10 students’ collections. They supported the show last year as well, and will continue with this sponsorship in the following years. Mandors fabric and textile company also has its long relationship with GSA fashion show, making it possible to stage such an incredible art performance. Thank you to them for making the event possible!
See you next year, future fashion gurus!
Words and Photographs by Zsofia Dobak
