Graduate Fashion Week 2009

Apart from London Fashion Week that happens twice a year, another annual fashion event that is much anticipated is the Graduate Fashion Week. Having it ended yesterday with a bang of fashion shows and fashion award, GFW09 saw the showcase of upcoming Brit graduate designers for the Autumn/Winter collection.

As hectic as my schedule for this week would be (rheology experiments HAVE to be finished!!), I made my way to Earls Court 2 exhibition centre last Monday for the runway shows by Nottingham Trent Uni students. Despite the gloomy and wet weather, that doesn't stop me from sitting among the fashionistas and stylonistas to see what's on offer. The music pounding loud, the crowd gaping in awe, the camera flashes non stop both on the seat and at the front of the stage.

So what's hot? About 24 students showed their brainchilds in an array of knitwears and ready-to-wears. It's great to see splashes of colors coz A/W's normally being dominated by sombre and the staple monochrome. Each designer sent off 5 designs on the catwalk. Some of my picks...

• Yanling Li. Opens the show with arrays of colors like a burst of rainbow.

• Rosie Ray: Earth monotone, with royal blue (SS09 fav color) made it way as well as dip-dye.

• Stephanie Hill: jumpsuit in tangerine/mustard, and grey mod dress are great.

• Zoe Lewis. The glow-in-the-dark knitwear is a pleasant surprise. Fun and futuristic.

• Freya Powell. I think the inspiration is from Transformers. From the pleated dress and patent print design, it's kinda taken from Transformer's mask. Brilliant.

• Pandora Bahrami: Immaculate design of knitwear. Very high fashion.

• Another one by Yanling Li

• Sophia Bentley Tonge: I love the quirkiness of her creation. Models wearing black gear Catwoman-meet-bondage-meet-burglar style! This is what a runway show should be. Theatrical like McQueens' AW09!

• Jason Mui: Glad to see some menswear in the collection. His collection uses lots of faux fur. He even sent off a model wearing the tall bear fur hat ala Royal Guard in the finale!

• Some other menswear (I think it's Nick Robbins). Zig-zaggy pattern ala Jaeger SS09 on jackets. These would definitely sell well in highstreet!

• Some killer stripper heels worn by the model (in Stephanie Hill's collection)

Overall? Great show, great collection, great atmosphere. The event which is sponsored by River Island and Loreal Professional really made a big way in showcasing the future trendsetters in Brit's fashion scene. Worth paying £10 for the ticket. At least I can also roam around inthe exhibition centre, taking some freebies, browsing the collection of other UK unis, while surfing wirelessly with my iPod Touch! :)

The downside? Some models looks like malnourished and weak. One female model walked terrible and keep slanting backward as if she's gonna fall. Some models got really fierce walk, and maybe gonna be the next Kate or Agyness (?). Another one - my Sony T700 really run out of battery and pix turned out to be washed out. Could've brought by EOS D450 instead. :(