June 18, 2025 |
Monday at Graduate Fashion Week brimmed with the buzz of 20,000 guests and the kind of energy only raw talent can ignite. But off the runway – and deep inside the Digital Hub – I had a runway moment of my own. As part of an interactive activation led by Clo 3D, I was invited to try my hand at virtual garment design. With a keyboard in hand and interface on screen, I created my first piece (a bra, no less): entirely black lace, underwired, pattern-cut and rendered in three dimensions. A fitting finale to a week defined by design debutantes – myself included.
In a second tutorial with Clo 3D, their team introduced us to the adaptive tech’s full potential: no calico, no trial and error – just textile-optimised programming and what they dub a ‘3D pen’, honing infinite potential. Within minutes, I had digitally constructed the balconette of my dreams. Cali-Clo, if you will. After a few step-by-step clicks, I drafted my first flat pattern: a vintage glamour-inspired half cup, with skinny wide-set straps and cap sleeves that I later reimagined in dainty lace. I even installed an underwire (admittedly, with a lot more than a little help), drag-and-dropped fabric from Clo’s extensive materials archive, scaled the pattern, turned it liquorice black and watched my garment sew into place and fall onto the virtual mannequin. For designers looking to start trying their hand at tech-savvy design – minus the waste and expense of guesswork – Clo might just be a new-gen grad’s best friend.
Precision of a different sort played out on the catwalk that morning. The 500-seater venue presented by Debenhams filled bright and early for the Collective Catwalk – a GFW highlight – boasting the best of seven UK universities and drawing a crowd of supporters, buyers and scouts hungry for next-gen craft. Four days in, the heels were higher, the silhouettes fuller and the stakes at their most theatrical. One such drama? The work of Poppy Nixon from Anglia Ruskin.
Nixon’s collection was a whispered tribute to the girlish joy of playing dress-up – specifically the feeling of swimming in your mother’s wardrobe, drowning in tulle, lace and satin. “It reminds me of trying on my mum’s dresses when I was younger and the fabric flooding everywhere,” she said. That sense of overwhelming wonder translated into noirish silhouettes layered in ruffled jet-black tulle, echoing Victoriana through a childlike lens. Look one opened with a sweeping coatdress and parasol, dotted in blush-pink peonies and ghosted in organza, while a later ensemble towered in tiers of black netting, softening only at the wrists and toes with flecks of powder pink. “It’s all black, but when you look within, it’s got pink to represent the younger [person] me inside,” Nixon said, nodding to the floral palette of her childhood nostalgia, now reimagined through her design’s grown-up grandeur.
Frills, by this point, had emerged as the week’s unofficial hero – Andrea Kapetaniou, part of the comprehensive Cambridge School of Arts (CSVPA) cohort, included. Her vision, also rendered entirely in tulle, sent the manipulated textile spiralling in tiers from shoulder to hem, then tumbling down tights in a cascading Cinderella sensation.
Look one offered a serene sense of femininity that could only be conjured by the Greek-Cypriot designer’s dreamy, harp-plucking soundtrack, or her festooned mass of organza: a torso adorned with a powder-blue bow and elegantly puffed long sleeves, in a floor-skimming silhouette which would later make a Best of GFW Awards reappearance, snagged by host Izzy Silvers – who made an entrance, asking for “a little commotion for the dress.” And a lot of commotion she got.
What followed may well have been one of the most meticulously crafted garments of the four-day affair: a peachy pink, pom-pom-trim dress that reimagined the baby-doll cut in billowing proportions. Then a sweeping open coat, a second baby-doll and finally, cylindrical culottes. It was a closing statement that bid well with the judges – and the kind of textural velocity that would make recent ‘supported by Dolce & Gabbana’ designer (and newlywed) Susan Fang swoon.
As the penultimate catwalk of the week, the Schools Only show made space in more ways than one – drawing a crowd so enthusiastic it spilled into standing rows and turned the venue into a field of friends and family spectators. But amongst the prodigies, it was Beatrice Bivol (Years 7-9), Amy Lay Henrietta (Years 10-11) and Rodrigo Strazds (Years 12-13) who emerged as class standouts, with GFW taking to its socials and branding them “the talent of the future winners [to come].”
Graduate Fashion Week wasn’t just a celebration of design, but a forum for dialogue too. FACE (Fashion and the Arts Creating Equity) marked its fifth year with a dedicated stand spotlighting reform across recruitment, progression, curriculum and culture. I spoke with the team about their mission to embed race-aware change into fashion education – a call to action that felt especially urgent on the final day of a week steeped in the arts.
Just across the floor, the 24th of 25 live talks, How to Close Fashion’s Diversity Gap, unpacked fashion’s often tokenistic progress, questioning what real inclusion looks like in a time of global DE&I (Diversity, Equality and Inclusion) rollbacks. The chosen panel – Sadie Clayton, Dr Avis Ellis-Charles, Samson Soboye and Benita Odogwu-Atkinson (also, FACE Vice-chair) – offered a rare, clear-eyed conversation that felt as vital as any ingenious moment that hit the runway.
And speaking of groundbreaking moments – once the final panel gave way to the soft clink of glasses at the VIP reception, the fash pack returned to its favourite fanfare: judging the best dressed. Stakes were high, (and seams tighter) as the collections came under the eye of this year’s Gold Judges: Foday Dumbuya, designer and founder of Labrum London; Yvie Hutton of the BFC; Toni-Blaze Ibekwe, former Editor-in-Chief of Wonderland; Julien Macdonald of her eponymous label; Patrick McDowell; and Lucy Yeomans, CEO of Drest and former EIC of Harper’s Bazaar and Porter. The evening culminated in the GFW Awards Gala 2025, which commenced in a (fashionably) late-night swing.
A final, celebratory sweep of award-winning garments took to the runway, honouring the Class of 2025 for their feat in fabric and form. Among them was Sarah Ajayi, who claimed Gold for Best of GFW, walking out beaming beside her models – a trio cloaked in regal cobalt and earthy raffia. Her collection deftly reimagined West African formal wear, its codes embodied via voluminous wax print puffball skirts, sculptural sleeves and tasselled fringing.
Equally showstopping was the work of Taiwanese designer Li-Yue Chen of Shih Chien University, who received the International Award – the second of the two Gold titles presented. Chen’s collection was a tactile hymn to heritage, merging folkloric ritual with the ghost of English inspectors past. A quilted ulster overcoat in sand and sienna opened the story, tile-patterned and fringed like the edge of a well-travelled rug. A baker boy cap mirrored the texture, while swishy trousers and an elaborately woven carryall suggested a figure caught mid-pilgrimage.
Here, Chen’s textiles did the heavy lifting. A jacquard knit in muted jewel tones anchored the base, layered with a leather lattice cuirass. A burlap-style drape was thrown over one shoulder, raw-edged and rudimentary, like something salvaged. Then came the finale: a jacket suspended by a wire-hanger, oil-lamp-like, glowing above the body in all its ghostly glory.
Rounding out the roster, Alicia Bambury (CSVPA) won Menswear, Jasmine Kelly (Manchester Fashion Institute) took Catwalk Colour presented by WGSN and Coloro and Kitty Carr-Lake (Leeds) claimed Catwalk to Commercial. Donghua University’s Zhang Xiyue and Lui Yingshan earned International Bronze and Silver respectively, while Le Wa Tan (UCA Epsom) and Scarlet Taylor (Nottingham Trent) completed the Best of GFW25 podium with Silver and Bronze.
“Each year, we’re driven to support and champion the next generation of creative talents in ever new and exciting ways,” said Douglas MacLennan, chairman of the Graduate Fashion Foundation (GFF) during the closing ceremony. But the Gala is far from a final curtain. GFF’s work continues year-round, with a programme of industry receptions, international showcases and regional masterclasses designed to connect graduates with the industry’s inner workings. There’s also the GFF Mentoring Programme; offering one-to-one guidance from leading voices in the field and the much anticipated bi-annual London Fashion Week showcase. Wellness, sustainability, career building and inclusion remain at the heart of its digital platform, where alumni and insiders share tools for what comes next.
And so, it was only fitting that the night ended in true GFW style – right where it all began – with a graduate’s design dreams animated into the very clothes that brought this week’s runway’s to life.
Top image: look by Ellis Carroll, photography courtesy of Graduate Fashion Week.
