This year’s show sold out within weeks of being announced. The Garment Factory was filled with curious spectators, excited to see what Scotland’s young and talented fashion designers were able to come up with for their graduation show.
The six BA (Hons) Fashion Design graduates created between four and six different looks to showcase their skills and imagination for a 30-minute long runway show. Oversized knits, suits, frills, colourful tops and the most impressive shoes were all part of the spectacular catwalk. Different music was played for each designer to distinguish the individuals’ work and inspire the guests.
Photograph: Dora Pongracz
Eve Gourlay, one of the graduates, created a collection inspired by her Spanish connections. She said: “My collection was based upon my personal connection to Spain, resuming years of research into the country and cultural and historical zeitgeist found within archive imagery.”
Her show had six looks containing trousers, skirts and dresses, all of which included a little bit of red and were dominated by frill detailing.
Photographs: Dora Pongracz
Hayley Watson, a graduate from Annan, created modern, casual menswear with perfect tailoring. Her collection was certainly one to remember, with many guests taking their phones out to photograph her pink suit, which came with pockets on the outside of the trousers, rather than inside.
The looks included jackets, t-shirts, hoodies and slim fit trousers in different colours, which were inspired by Watson’s working-class, rural Scottish community background. She said: “I wanted to produce pieces that would allow people from communities like mine to be the ones that were ‘in on the joke’ for once, rather than being excluded from cultural narratives as we normally are, hence the use of the phrase ‘IF YOU KNOW YOU KNOW’ as the title of my collection.”
Photographs: Dora Pongracz
Watson’s pink suit was definitely one of the highlight outfits of the show. Her simple, smart design was used “as a reference to the significance of dressing smart as a working class person.” She said: “Suits are occasionwear for us, they’re meaningful in a way that they perhaps aren’t for someone who wears one to work every day. The colour choice, pink, was pulled from the shade of pink so many of the walls on Annan high street are of inexplicably painted.”
Each year, The Glasgow School of Art, Glasgow Caledonian University and many other Scottish universities’ fashion graduates showcase their work during Graduate Fashion Weeks in cities across the country. The events are becoming bigger and better every year.