It featured 11 unique collections created by final year fashion design students, which were modelled by Manchester based Boss models.
Singer, songwriter, fashionista and host of Channel 4’s hit body positivity show Naked Beach, Jsky, also opened this year’s show with a live performance.
Senior Fashion Lecturer Chris Molloy said: “We are absolutely delighted to bring this prestigious event back to Preston as nothing beats seeing the collections on a catwalk.
“We have really missed this event in our calendar and the students have worked incredibly hard to produce these professional, highly personal collections ready to showcase to the public.”
One featured student, Kirsten Torkoniak, who embraced sustainable practices with her designs added: “I am proud of the way my original designs have had very little changes throughout the process and we were always able to find a way to create the look I wanted. The final year had so many challenges and involved a lot of late nights and hard work but I had the best time seeing my designs come to life.”
For the first time, the showcase also featured work from first and second year fashion design students, along with a short film reflecting on the breadth and depth of skills across the university’s fashion courses, highlighting diverse projects created by fashion promotion with marketing, fashion design and textile student
See the 11 showcases, as well as other snaps from the fun night below:
5. Hannah Gallagher
Arial photos of basketball courts in bright geometric colours define the surface patterns in my collection. Simple items such as ‘performance ponchos’, colour blocked leggings and track pants are redefined by large scale patterns. Printed ‘rip-stop’ fabrics and metallic leathers add a high fashion twist to functional sportswear pieces. Photo: UCLan
6. Holly Nickson
Whilst scavenging in my loft I spotted a box of old clothes from the 70’s, which was my mother’s and her five sisters from their childhood. I started trying on all these items, clashing patterns and layering everything on top of each other to make completely new garments. This sparked an idea for my final collection entitled the ‘Dressing Up Box’. Through this process I used deadstock scrap fabrics to produce a new, multi-use (reversable, detachable), sustainable and out of the ordinary collection of garments. Photo: UCLan
7. Kirsten Torkoniak
My ‘Immersion’ collection embraces sustainable practices such as repurposing nautical sails and the utilisation of ‘end of roll’ materials. Inspiration comes from boat rigs, sailing equipment and complex architectural forms that have inspired outerwear pieces. My garments are designed to be transformative and multifunctional resulting in a collection that is both futuristic and highly functional. Details such as pleating, architectural cut and sew techniques, performance materials and highly functional styling ideas such as multiple 3D pockets and cocooning hoods create other-worldly activewear items. Photo: UCLan
8. Nicole Hind
My dad was in a 70s Punk Rock Band and this was the main source of inspiration for creating my collection. In true punk rock fashion, my dad and his bandmates borrowed, plundered charity shops, collected family cast-offs and benefitted from my nan’s knitting skills to customise outfits and it is this ingenuity that became the creative process for work. My dad and his band were inspired by the ‘Sex Pistols’ whose anarchic approach to music and style influences my inventive collection. Photo: UCLan