By Mrs Maughan (Textiles Teacher)

On Wednesday 12th June, the Lower Sixth Textiles students visited Graduate Fashion Week in the heart of London’s Brick Lane.

The Graduate Fashion Foundation annually presents Graduate Fashion Week, the largest showcase of BA fashion in the world with the most influential and inspiring UK and international universities and colleges on show. It provides a fantastic opportunity to see the freshest talent from 26 different fashion disciplines.

On the day, we attended a live programme of industry professionals presenting discussions around subjects including Navigating Career and Life Challenges, How to Protect your Mental Health Working in Fashion, What are Fashion Recruiters Looking for in New Talent? and Adaptive and Inclusive Fashion.

There was also a series of workshops run by a company owned by an ex-student of mine who were demonstrating CLO3D software, which is a fashion design programme that creates virtual garments, as well as develops a simulation environment to display and merchandise designs for E-commerce.

There was also a live jobs hub supported by leading recruitment companies including Fashion Workie, Dweet, Elite Associate, Everly Studio and Fashion Network. A jobs wall featured current graduate vacancies, there were recruitment specialists on hand to provide CV and Portfolio Advice.

We were lucky enough to secure Catwalk Tickets for the joint show featuring selected collections from UCLAN (University of Central Lancashire) and Norwich University of the Arts. It’s always exciting to see a show and true to the BGS fighting spirit we managed to get a second-row view!

We had a fantastic day gathering inspiration not only for progression and career options, but also for design and presentation of ideas. In such a great location too, we wandered through Spitalfields Market before heading home.