electric_dress: Edinburgh College of Art @ Graduate Fashion Week

This week, my first in London, I've been a busy bee down at Graduate Fashion Week. My good friend from Glasgow James invited me along to the Edinburgh College of Art show on Sunday. He got tickets through his pal Barbra who graduated there last year - I'd met her before at GAY, and I can certainly say its the first time anyone's ever met me with the words, "Oh Rena! Didn't recognise you without the pink wig."

The show was excellent, all really well made pieces, and surprisingly wearable and sellable for a graduate show. Appaz this is down to course director Malcolm being part of the All Walks Beyond The Catwalk project, an initiative that gets designers to create for/on REAL WOMEN not drawing fantasies in their fancy sketch books. The students have to really think about the way womens' bodies work, move and change, which kinda makes sense. Also, there is an emphasis on creating a brand as well as a product, so unlike some other sows I say, you felt like you were seeing a three dimensional concept rather than simply a whole bunch of pretty clothes.

I got front row seats right at the end of the catwalk thanks to my doing a write-up o the show for the Skinny, so I got hunners of good. Here are the first few. Amazing, insect-like sculptural stuff from Jacob Birge; day-glo sporty menswear from Raj Mistry; disco glitter meets prairie girl from Bryony Grant; gorgeous dark tailoring from Eva Ng; pretty feminine layers by Farah Saffari; and minimal cool boys stuff by Colin Oliphant.

After, Jacob talked me through his incredible process of writing maths equations, turning them into electro music, taking the pattern, mirroring it butterfly style and creating the bones of a new silhouette! Absolute genius stuff, I love his futuristic, sciencey take on it all.

Read Part 2 here
Read Part 3 here