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Amelia’s Magazine | Graduate Fashion Week 2011 Gala Awards Show: The Winners

Graduate Fashion Week Gala show 2011-Rory Longdon
Rory Longdon was a worthy winner of the Graduate Fashion Week 2011 George Gold Award. Okay, order it’s a gold award, order I geddit already.

Just over two weeks ago I was invited to attend the Gala show for the Graduate Fashion Awards. I’ve not been back to the student fashion shows since I graduated 15 years ago (gulp). Back then they were held in the Islington Business Centre and I don’t remember much about them at all – I had already decided that my future did not lie in catwalk shows and so I only had a static stand to show off my printed textiles designs… which I had honed in the knowledge that I would prefer to pursue a career in illustration. Isn’t it funny how the circle turns? I never have been able to get away from fashion… but then again nor have I abandoned illustration. I could never have predicted then just how my life would have panned out in the years since.

Joey and Sam Faiers TOWIE by Munroe Bergdorf
Joey Essex and Sam Faiers from TOWIE. Photo by Munroe Bergdorf.

It’s been a shaky year for the Graduate Fashion Show brand – the sponsorship that was needed for it to continue was finally taken on by George at Asda at the last minute. Select guests were treated like royalty – the cast of TOWIE may not be considered the height of style in most forward thinking fashion circles but they were feted like true celebrities at the Gala show. Myself and Naomi? We couldn’t get past the cordons in the middle of the Earl’s Court conference centre for a drink and a natter with friends beforehand (I tried unhooking the cordon, the security was not very amused). Inside the TOWIE crew primped and preened, basking in the attention. Sound familiar? Exactly the same fiasco for Matt Bramford last year. So instead we tried our luck at the brightly coloured George stand, to no avail, though their PR was happy to give me their spiel, drink in hand. More than one woman was wearing the same dress… but then that’s the dangers of mass fashion for you.

Graduate Fashion Week Gala show 2011-George

Inside the Gala show area notable bodies from the fashion world were relegated to the fifth row, whilst TOWIE agents hogged front row seats. (There was one next to me, I did my research later.) Luckily I was able to snag one at the last minute or there would be no photos here for you. All of this preamble pretty much sums up the atmosphere of the Gala show, which was all about the glitz and the razzmatazz. The mannered presenting from Clothes Show stalwarts Jeff Banks (complete with inappropriate comments) and his cohort Caryn Franklin (for whom I have a very large soft spot) was at times incredibly painful.

Graduate Fashion Week Gala show 2011-Lauren Brown & Sophia Sabados, UCA Epsom
Graduate Fashion Week 2011 review-Lauren Brown & Sophia Sabados
I was excited to see Lauren Brown & Sophia Sabados – students from UCA Epsom (where I have lectured) – win the Media and Design Award (presented by Grace Woodward) for their magazine.

A myriad of famous guests (Sophie Ellis-Bexter – new album to promote, the Sugababe Heidi Range, Carole White, she of Premier modelling agency fame) were led onstage to present awards as this year’s crop of excitable graduates whooped and a-hollered. It was nice to hear everyone in such a celebratory mood… but when one of the presenters declared that she hoped all graduates would go into paid jobs straight away I couldn’t help but have a little bit of a snigger.

Graduate Fashion Week Gala show Christina Economou 2011
International Award winner Christina Economou of the Istituto Marangoni, Paris.

Graduate Fashion Week Gala show Dominique Kral 2011
Zandra Rhodes Catwalk Textiles Award winner Dominique Kral of Northbrook College Sussex.

Graduate Fashion Week Gala show Wong Jee Chung 2011
Stuart Peters Visionary Knitwear Award winner Won Jee Chung of Nottingham Trent University.

Oh my days… here I am all these years down the line and I’ve yet to figure out how I can make a proper living out of my fashion textiles degree. It’s a lovely sentiment, but it’s just not the reality of the fashion industry. This is a place where only the most dedicated survive… or those with rich/famous parents. Unless you pursue a career in the mass fashion industry. A degree in fashion is now about so much more than just design, and the UK is still the world industry leader for well trained young fashion creatives in all kinds of fashion related disciplines. There was an element of realism in the recommendation to look to industry for jobs, presumably an effort to quash too many unrealistic ‘next McQueen’ expectations. Since I graduated the choice of degrees which train people to work in the fashion industry has multiplied massively. It’s now possible to pursue a plethora of different avenues such as styling and promotion which really weren’t available when I went to university back in the early 90s. All of this corresponds with a massive growth in our insatiable desire to consume mass fashion… do you see a connection? My, how I struggle with this industry at times.

Graduate Fashion Week Gala show Felix Wolodymyr ChablukSmith 2011
Menswear Award winner Felix Wolodymyr Chabluk Smith of Edinburgh School of Art.

Graduate Fashion Week Gala show Marrisa Owen 2011
Womenswear Award winner Marrisa Owen of University of Central Lancashire.

Graduate Fashion Week Gala show Rory Longdon 2011
George Gold Award winner Rory Longdon of Nottingham Trent University.

The Gala show awards closed in a huge tumble of gold foil more suited to a crucial key change at a boy band concert. Oh how times have changed. I wish this year’s graduates all the best. More on the winners and other show finalists coming up shortly.

Graduate Fashion Week Gala show 2011-Rory Longdon finale

Written by Amelia Gregory on Friday June 24th, 2011 2:01 pm

Categories ,Carole White, ,Caryn Franklin, ,Christina Economou, ,Dominique Kral, ,Edinburgh School of Art, ,Felix Wolodymyr Chabluk Smith, ,Gala Show, ,George at Asda, ,George Gold Award, ,GFW, ,Grace Woodward, ,Graduate Fashion Awards, ,Heidi Range, ,Islington Business Centre, ,Istituto Marangoni, ,Jeff Banks, ,Joey Essex, ,Lauren Brown, ,Mass fashion, ,Media and Design Award, ,Menswear Award, ,Munroe Bergdorf, ,Northbrook College Sussex, ,Nottingham Trent University, ,paris, ,Peters Visionary Knitwear Award, ,Premier, ,Rory Longdon, ,Sam Faiers, ,Sophia Sabados, ,Sophie Ellis-Bexter, ,Sugababes, ,The Clothes Show, ,TOWIE, ,UCA Epsom, ,Womenswear Award, ,Won Jee Chung, ,Wong Jee Chung

Amelia’s Magazine | London Art Fair 2012 Review: Part One

London Art Fair 2012 -Andrea Mastrovito
London Art Fair 2012. Detail of Andrea Mastrovito‘s Gulliver’s Travels.

You may remember from my previous blog that the launch of The Catlin Guide for the best graduate artists took place at the London Art Fair last week. I popped along to the Islington Business Design Centre to check out the completed guide, suss out which galleries are showcasing the best new talent, and find out what trends are hot in the art world right now.

London Art Fair 2012 -Annie Whiles, detail Annie Whiles, detail.

First up at Danielle Arnaud I loved work by Annie Whiles, using simple line to create iconic shapes.

London Art Fair 2012 -Simon Lewty, detail
Simon Lewty, detail.

Simon Lewty for Art First showed amazing inked drawings: it’s well worth checking out the rest of his work.

London Art Fair 2012 -Annie Morris, detail
Annie Morris, detail.

At Pertwee, Anderson & Gold, the first in a common theme was evident, rows of stuff: in this case hundreds of pegs, each decorated with a crudely drawn female figure. This Peg Piece was created by artist Annie Morris, who rose to fame after illustrating the children’s book The Man With the Dancing Eyes by Sophie Dahl.

Andrea mastrovito Foley Gallery
London Art Fair 2012 -Andrea Mastrovito, detail
Andrea Mastrovito, detail.

At Foley Gallery Andrea Mastrovito used intricate collaged paper for the Gulliver’s Travels series, which imagines a brightly coloured world of little people and puppet hands.

justine smith the-british-isles
Diamond dust is hot news for use in prints, favoured by the likes of Damian Hirst, Peter Blake, and Justine Smith at TAG Fine Arts. Her lovely limited edition print of a bank note British Isles features oodles of the stuff. Common glitter was also a favourite enhancement for many artists.

claire brewster flyingfinch
London Art Fair 2012 -Claire Brewster

Also at TAG I loved the work of Claire Brewster. The Harbingers featured exquisitely cut and mounted birds, created from old maps: Maps are another massive trend, reworked into any manner of different outcomes. Good to see so much upcycling!

Tobias Till Picadilly tag arts
Tobias Till showed a fabulous set of prints – the London A-Z, available as a boxed set and selling very well if the red dots were anything to go by.

Witness - Detail Rachel Shaw Ashton
Witness – Detail, by Rachel Shaw Ashton.

Of course TAG also host the work of Rob Ryan (read a review of his TAG art exhibition in 2010 here). More beautiful papercutting (still a massive trend) came from Rachel Shaw Ashton, showing with JaggedArt. She layers paper with pins to create simple shapes in pure white to great affect.

London Art Fair 2012 -tracey bush
I was also drawn to the 3D sculpture by Tracey Bush. Little Clod of Earth is a clump of wild plants made from the dog ends of paper packaging – oddly beautiful and strange.

London Art Fair 2012 -francesca prieto
JaggedArt also hosts the work of Francisca Prieto, who once more works with old atlases and maps to create beautiful 3D repetitive works of art. We wrote about her recent exhibition Unbound.

London Art Fair 2012 -Charles Fazzino
London Art Fair 2012 -London Art Fair 2012 -Charles Fazzino
USA based artist Charles Fazzino creates astonishing scenes with layers of paper. He calls it 3D pop art; showing with Galerie Olivier Waltman from Paris.

London Art Fair 2012 -derrick santini
On a completely different tangent I was surprised to see the work of fashion photographer Derrick Santini, who showed lenticular artwork with Scream. Forget those cheesy Jesus postcards, these artworks feature an astonishing amount of different angles. I can see city types absolutely loving one of these on their penthouse apartment walls!

London Art Fair 2012 -karen nicol
Russian_Bear_by_Karen_Nicol
Russian Bear by Karen Nicol.

The Rebecca Hossack gallery always hosts interesting craft based artworks: Karen Nicol‘s Thread Bear utilised a vintage piece of French needlepoint as the basis, into which pieces have been embroidered and appliqued. I have a bad photo so here’s another similar piece.

London Art Fair 2012 -rebecca coles
Rebecca Coles also shows with Rebecca Hossack – you can read our extensive interview with this paper artist who specialises in butterflies here.

London Art Fair 2012 -simone lia

Rounding a corner I was pleased to see a wall of artwork by Simone Lia, who sells prints with Jealous Gallery. Her infamous Hello Sausage Hello Chicken has just been reissued in a new colour range. The gallery are also the purveyors of the prints from the Ghosts of Gone Birds exhibition, including the fab Ralph Steadman birds (read my review here).

More coming up shortly… don’t go away! *here’s part two of my review*

Written by Amelia Gregory on Tuesday January 24th, 2012 1:40 pm

Categories ,2012, ,Anderson & Gold, ,Andrea Mastrovito, ,Annie Morris, ,Annie Whiles, ,art, ,Art First, ,Butterflies, ,Charles Fazzino, ,Claire Brewster, ,collage, ,craft, ,Damian Hirst, ,Danielle Arnaud, ,Derrick Santini, ,Foley Gallery, ,Francisca Prieto, ,Galerie Olivier Waltman, ,Ghosts of Gone Birds, ,Gulliver’s Travels, ,Hello Sausage Hello Chicken, ,Islington Business Centre, ,JaggedArt, ,Jealous Gallery, ,Justine Smith, ,Karen Nicol, ,Lenticular, ,Little Clod of Earth, ,London A-Z, ,London Art Fair, ,maps, ,Papercutting, ,Pegs, ,Pertwee, ,Peter Blake, ,prints, ,Rachel Shaw Ashton, ,Ralph Steadman, ,Rebecca Hossack Gallery, ,Rebecca J Coles, ,review, ,Rob Ryan TAG fine arts, ,Scream, ,Simon Lewty, ,Simone Lia, ,Sophie Dahl, ,textile, ,The Catlin Guide, ,The Harbingers, ,Thread Bear, ,Tobias Till, ,Tracey Bush, ,Unbound, ,Upcycling

Amelia’s Magazine | London Art Fair: Hunting for treasure

Boondocks by Suzanne Moxhay

I gave up and asked for directions to the Bearspace stand after wandering around looking for it for nearly half an hour. ‘Yes it’s two floors up, take a right, left, and right again,’ said the sleek-haired young man with the name tag. As you may have gathered, the London Art Fair is huge. 120 galleries are exhibiting, and then there’s the Photo50 section and the Arts Projects section.

‘Feudal’ is the installation from Deptford-based Bearspace – a photography installation drawing inspiration from the Dark Ages. Falcons are the stars of Slovenian photographer Jasmina Cibic’s contribution, representing a wilderness hierarchy while at the same time the birds are tied to their posts or wearing masks. The birds in the photos are alive, said the poster, and the images are so pin-sharp you half expect the birds to come at you and take out your eyes.

Perch for Falco cherrug by Jasmina Cibic

The overgrown houses and spooky, mystical forests in Suzanne Moxhay’s artworks halfway look like paintings but they are also photographs, says the Bearspace representative. It’s half storybook long-lost fantasy land, half Tolkien-esque Fangorn Forest where the trees have a will of their own. Are those people or tree logs, at the bottom of the piece called ‘Bayou’? Maybe both. My friend shuddered as she peered at the photo, so I asked her if she liked it: ‘I really don’t know. But I can feel it down my back.’

Feudal by Suzanne Moxhay

Overwhelmed by choice, we ended up spending most of our time in the Arts Projects section. I can see why this part of the fair is becoming increasingly popular, as it seems to feature more original installations. My favourite find was Troika Editions’ Sachiyo Nishimura, whose industrial landscape images are oddly compelling. The work by the London-based artist is on first glance just factory pipes, rail tracks and power lines, but for reasons I can’t put my finger on the large photographs are simply stunning.

Landscape / fiction by Sachiyo Nishimura

The pearl and bead panels by Korean artist Sankeum Koh just beg to be touched, hanging on the walls all shiny under bright lights. The artist’s works can also be found in large scale on public buildings, said the Hanmi Gallery representative. It’s obviously modelled on typed words, and while it’s not braille the effect is still to make something solely visual into a fascinating tactile experience – maybe even more so because you could potentially get thrown out for handling the art. Shan Hur is another Korean artist attracting attention, having created fake archeological discoveries at the I-MYU Projects stand. Ceramic vases and other items were excavated from concrete walls, representing the hidden pasts of buildings as their functions change.

The fair had plenty of playful exhibitions too, including Sadie Hennessy’s ‘Gary Glitter Glam Rock’ candy at Wilson Williams Gallery’s Art Star Superstore. Yours for £3, but as my friend said, with Glitter’s history I’m not sure I could put that in my mouth.

The London Art Fair until Sunday 23rd January at the Business Design Centre in Islington, London N1. See our listing for more information and opening hours. Bearspace is at stand P19 upstairs in the ‘Arts Projects’ section; after this weekend find it at 152 Deptford High Street, London SE8 3PQ.

Written by Jessica Furseth on Thursday January 20th, 2011 7:41 pm

Categories ,art, ,Art Star Superstore, ,Arts Projects, ,Bearspace, ,Feudal, ,Hanmi Gallery, ,I-MYU Projects, ,Islington, ,Islington Business Centre, ,Jasmina Cibic, ,london, ,London Art Fair, ,Photo50, ,photography, ,Sachiyo Nishimura, ,Sadie Hennessy, ,Sankeum Koh, ,Shan Hur, ,Suzanne Moxhay, ,Troika Editions, ,Wilson Williams Gallery

Amelia’s Magazine | Graduate Fashion Week 2011 Gala Awards Show: The Winners

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