Ravensbourne is one school I always look forward to seeing, having seen what amazing work their students have done in the past. This year's collections, overall, did not disappoint. As with every year, the house was packed with enthusiastic fans. Ravensbourne's collections are usually among the more wearable of the schools at Graduate Fashion Week.
Continuing on from last year, students from Ravensbourne are encouraged to use sustainable and innovative materials in their collections. Take a look at the Graduate Fashion Week 2016 show to read more about how Ravensbourne prepares their students for a future in the fashion industry.
Here's your front row seat.
Grace's collection gave the air old-world chic, from the colour palette, fabric choices through to the styling.
The adventurer, parachute idea was a common theme of this year's Graduate Fashion Week. The pop of yellow worked well with the greyscale palette.
Verhonica's collection was made from deconstructed men's suiting fabric and details. This was another theme running throughout Graduate Fashion Week and this was one of the strongest. It is not often someone can take men's suiting and make it utterly feminine.
Like a lot of the collections from the students, their designs are more about technique than commerciality. While Hiu's collection was not aesthetically my cup of tea, one cannot argue that her skills are on point.
Sophie's collection had extremely strong shapes, with her Japanese-inspired designs, and with a complementary palette. Sometimes, the details and embroidery detracted from the pieces but it was an overall strong collection.
Look familiar? There was a trench like this in De Montfort, but the main difference is that this collection from Ganja took an ever-so-slightly more masculine approach when reimagining menswear.
Ellen is an accessory design student, and her colour combination is close to my heart. It was hard to chose a favourite piece, but I think it has to be this massive tote bag. Not many have been able to make such amazing accessories out of so many safety pins, but Ellen has done it. And as with many collections this week, the badges on this bag were making a political statement, this one about racism.
Katrina is another accessory design student. Her designs were very Jeremy Scott-esque in my opinion. She was making a statement of the mundanity of the current fashion world with her designs, taking aim at Prada, Selfridges and others.
Bags on bags on bags, along with travel and exploration inspired pieces, was yet another trend on show this week which is encapsulated in this collection.
While the utilitarian look was yet another trend this year, Terry's was another one of my favourites. There was a bit of an avant-garde, darker style to the collection and all totally wearable.
I loved the volume and the movement of Niloufar's collection. These pieces were totally commercial, high-end designs.
Ophelia was one of the finalists for the Best of Graduate Fashion Week. This collection, to me, seemed very anti-fashion, with the word Necrophelia (obviously a play on her name) emblazoned all over. This look was one of my favourites of the collection.
Katherine's collection was an interesting way to use what looked to be upholstery fabric in fashion. All of the bits and bobs hanging off were a bit of a distraction. This was my favourite piece of the collection.
Adam Elyasse
Adam's collection, starting with a white outfit followed by 4 black outfits and finishing with this red look, along with the styling for some reason reminded me of urban soldiers.
Samantha's collection was anti-housewife, with hair ties as earrings and needlepoint frames as details on the skirts. This look above was definitely the strongest of the collection.
This method of structuring was used in several collections throughout the week, and Merlyn's was one of my favourites (probably due to my love for black). While this method was used by different designers, this was one of the closest to commercial collections where it was present.
I've got to be honest, neon colours really aren't my thing, but this orange skirt was simple and wearable. There was a not to menswear with this collection as well, with a yellow blazer and off-set pink trench dress.
Ellen Fowles
While the stuffed hands draped all over the pieces were a bit of a distraction from the garments, it was nice to see some age diversity on the runway. Ellen's collection was basically the avant-garde wardrobe I want to have at that age.
Thank you to Claire Mcintyre, Elspeth Vincent and Christina Mitrea for the images.