Some of the UK fashion industry’s hottest brands have praised De Montfort University Leicester (DMU) students for their incredible collections on the London catwalk, with one coining a new name for the designs on the runway - “Glamourzonian”.
A total of 20 final year students from DMU’s world-renowned Contour Fashion course saw their lingerie, nightwear, corsetry, swimwear and sports gear walked down the runway by professional models in the opulent surroundings of Covent Garden’s Freemasons’ Hall last week.
Representatives from world-famous brands such as M&S, H&M, Gossard and Curvy Kate were among the audience of hundreds and were full of praise for the students’ work, which has seen many already secure jobs before they have been awarded their degrees.
The collections delighted Elise Recour, the general manager for Gossard and Berlei, who commended the students saying: “I think through this collection we are seeing the strength of women and the empowered woman coming back on the catwalk. There was this mixture of the fragile, the feminine and the strong. I called it Glamourzonian!
“I thought the show was vibrant, extraordinarily put together, very professional and very creative. The diversity of skills and the technical skills, from corsetry to long seam shapes, was outstanding.”
All pictures by Sean Goldthorpe, DMU MA Photography
Mandy Ferrand is creative director for Courtaulds, which is the UK’s biggest lingerie manufacturer. The company employs thousands of people across 16 countries in Europe, North America and Asia, and has an annual turnover exceeding £1billion.
Mandy was on the judging panel at DMU which last month decided which of the Contour Fashion students would be selected to have their creations appear in the catwalk show.
She said: “I think this shows how DMU produces a pool of such creative talent. The technicality and the fit and the use of materials was impressive. I would go as far as to say the collection was almost of couture standard (the art of creating exclusive custom-fitted clothing all by hand to the highest level) and the course improves year on year.”
Hannah Isichei, PR and Marketing Manager for Curvy Kate, added: “This show was a breath of fresh air. Seeing the collections gives you such a boost and creates excitement about the industry and what is to come in the future.
“Sometime the industry can feel quite small and you feel it is not changing much. Then you see all this talent on show and how much they have to offer and businesses like us are going to benefit from it.”
Johan Amtner travelled from H&M’s headquarters in Sweden to see the DMU show and revealed he had offered jobs to two of the students.
He said: “There was a really high level of technical skill on show and I saw some really commercial pieces which, of course, I am interested in.
“The execution of all the garments was of a really high level and they were very much focussed on detail, which I like a lot. The mixture of fabrics and textures was especially interesting. The aim for me is to find new talent and I am delighted to say we are talking to two of the student about coming to work with us in Stockholm.”
Soozie Jenkinson, Head of Lingerie Design at M&S, the UK’s biggest contour brand, has a number of previous DMU Contour Design graduates working in her department.
She said: “The standard was incredibly high this year and for me a couple of things really stood out. These were the sheer variety of styles on show underpinned with really great technical know-how and an incredible attention to detail which really shone through.
“All of this lead to the students putting on a professional and inspiring show.”
Posted on Tuesday 9 June 2015