‘Urban Holographic’ was this year’s brief for the Fashion Awareness Direct student competition at the Vauxhaul Fashion Scout tent. Hmm yes…not quite sure what that means? Think 2001: A Space Odyssey, and outlandish 60’s visions of a future generation living in space. By now we should all be floating about in pods, preserving our eyeballs in liquid nitrogen, and consuming our daily calorie intake with a single tablet (I’m sure that will go down well with the fashion crowd). Unfortunately Stanely Kubrick’s futuristic hopes have not materialised. But the aesthetics and fashion sense of this genre, known as ‘Retrofuturism,’ are still a major design inspiration.
Fourteen finalists from ten UK universities/colleges took part in the show. Each student presented two ‘uniforms’ for galactic hosts/hostesses. Baby-faced William Tempest (he can’t be older that eleven) announced the winners. Camilla Kennedy from Birmingham University received the 2nd runner up prize with her duo that wouldn’t look out of place on any high street.: a red playsuit with harem shorts and nipped in waist, and a tailored silver lame jacket with severe shoulders with black leather leggings.
First runner up was Felicity Baggett with her menswear collection of subtle planetry prints and heat moulded spheres. I don’t know what it is about award ceremonies that gets me. While everyone scoffed and cringed, I gasped breathlessly right by Kate Winslet’s side. So finding myself sitting immediately next to the mother of the 1st runner up was just too overwhelming. At the first whiff of a proud beaming Mrs Bagget, I sobbed uncontrollably.
It got worse when they announced the winner, Madrid-born Ana Belen Moreno. Her parents, who were sporting fabulous matching pastel pink sweaters and were filming the show on their camcorder, screamed. Yes that’s right all you reserved English people who hate over emotional acceptance speeches at the Oscars, they screamed and yelped and jumped in joy. It was beautiful. I really, really wanted to join them. Their daughter’s designs were definitely worth their enthusiastic appraisal. The two garments were striking and skilfully made, combining Tie –dye ‘cosmic cloud print’ with digital Op-Art and structured tailoring. Any intergalactic space steward would be proud to wear them.
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