NIL issue two

AUB FASHION i s s u e t w o

Dear Reader, A warm welcome to our second issue of NIL magazine. We are delighted to present the work from our 2016 fashion graduates. You can see a diverse selection of Womenswear, Menswear, Childrenswear and Product, as well work from our Image & Communication students presenting fashion marketing, writing, styling, publication, and new media.

Our views and practices within fashion are less than traditional and it is our contemporary approach which defines us as a course. The current graduates of 2016 have excelled in numerous competitions this academic year as finalists for the Hempel International Design Awards, DiversityNOW, FAD 2016, Lectra Kaledo® ‘Drape to Create’ Design Competion, and many more.

We hope you enjoy reading NIL. Yours truly, Anne Chaisty Head of Fashion at Arts University Bournemouth

key womenswear menswear childrenswear product image & communication

Why Fas hi on M a t t e rs Wo rds by Alison B ancro f t

Fashion matters because it’s the only creative form whose automatic default is feminine. I have a book, “The 100 Greatest Women Artists of the Twentieth Century.” There is no companion volume, “The 100 Greatest Men Artists of the Twentieth Century,” because art is assumed to be practiced by men and women artists are a subsection within it. It’s the same with literature. Amble around Waterstones or any other large bookshop and you’ll see a dedicated section – “Women’s Literature” – because literature written by women is niche.

(Mummy porn notwitstanding.) Female film directors can be counted on your fingers while for male film directors you need to open a spreadsheet, and theatre fares no better.

There’s nothing unusual in this. Out there in the real world women are under-represented in just about every sphere there is, from business to politics to sport to medicine to you name it.

And this is what makes fashion so interesting. It’s not just about shopping, and if you think it is, you’ve missed a trick.

Fashion is the only cultural space where the feminine is not a subsection or niche, or relegated to domestic drudgery, or circumscribed by reproduction. It is a space where femininity can be radically different to what is expected of it, in a world where feminine is short-hand for second-class. And the possibilities are infinite.

In her autobiography “Landscape for a Good Woman” the writer Carolyn Steedman describes her working-class post-war childhood, and she talks about how her mother would dream wistfully of “a full skirt that took twenty yards of cloth.” In the 1950s, this means Christian Dior’s New Look, or the equivalent that you could run up yourself at home from a pattern given away in a women’s magazine. Steedman’s book never mentions Dior, but the fashion he created offers her mother a vision of a life beyond housework and children, of what she could do or be if she didn’t have to do what was expected of her, if she could reject her lot in life and do something, anything, else instead.

The vision created by the cosmetics company, Mac, does the same. The most recent ad campaign features the female body builder Jelena Abbou, muscular and Amazonian, in a black PVC ball gown. Other campaigns have featured a drag queen (Ru Paul), Lady Gaga, Wonder Woman and Miss Piggy.

And then there are fashion models, who are far from being the feeble, eating-disordered child-women that government ministers and the male-dominated media would like us to believe. They don’t look like “normal” people, for sure, but that’s their job. They don’t look like that just to piss people off, either. They were born that way. Plus, if “normal” femininity means excluded, exploited and marginalised, who would want to be “normal” anyway? What benefit do women derive from being “normal”? (Answer – none at all.)

The most remarkable fashion models are the ones who ride roughshod over standard ideas about men and women. Men like Andrej Pejić modelling womenswear, women like Casey Legler modelling menswear, and drag queens and transsexuals like Ru Paul and Lea T appearing on runways and in magazines as themselves, in all their confusing, gender-bending glory.

There’s nothing in fashion about having curves versus joining Weightwatchers. There’s nothing about work-life balance versus having it all. There’s nothing about being fulfilled as a woman only through biological reproduction. There’s nothing about fashion that makes women sexy in a conventional, attractive-to-straight-men kind of way. In fact, sexy in fashion is the antidote to the “cor-I’d-do-that” lad’s mag idea of sexual attractiveness that sees women either letched at in the street or assessed visually and found wanting. The sexy in fashion is terrifying for the “cor-I’d-do-that” brigade.

The fact that fashion offers an entirely different vision of femininity, and gives women (and men) an alternative view of what they could be, is why it gets such a bad press. It’s either responsible for eating disorders, or it’s pointless and frivolous. Frequently we’re told it’s both. In fact, it’s neither.

It’s much more than that. It might not be revolutionary but it’s certainly seditious, which is why it’s routinely denigrated and maligned, and also why it matters.

“I’m a fashion and culture analyst. I write about runway, fashion photography, fashion film, editorial and campaigns, and books and exhibitions. I’m also interested in art and design, and culture generally, and I have a passing interest in sex and gender too. My first book, Fashion and Psychoanalysis, was published in 2012, and while I’m working on my next one I post stuff at w w w.al i sonbancroft.com”

product

1.

4.

1. Libby Jacques 2. Rachael Taylor

2.

illustration

1.

1. Sophie Brampton 2. Amy Roberts

2.

Holly Halkes

George Hollins

Frederick Olafsson

Michelle Obuya

Millie Turner

Alice Carlzon

Sarah Hay

Ella McMillan

Valandia Afendakis

Hayley Carter

Rebecca Allen

Robyn Gardiner

Kelly Wong

Elizabeth Layte

Catherine Thompson

Samantha Graham

Jeka Ross

Laura Woolley

Teena Mistry

Emily Condon

styling

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

7.

6.

1. Lauren Noble 2. Katheryn Watson 3. Ieva Ceica 4. Lindsay Sawers 5. Charlotte Crockett 6. Emily Reid 7. Jasmine Martin-Lord 8. Katheryn Watson

8.

interview

5 minutes with ‘Frock ‘n’ Roll Queen’ Kait Bolongaro This year the former owner and creator of the ALLSAINTS brand Kait Bolongaro, worked with AUB Fashion’s second year students on a collaborative live project for her current brand BOLONGARO TREVOR. As part of their initial company research, the students interviewed Kait about the brand, it’s origins, and the creative influences driving their aesthetic.

Words by Ruby Baldry

When husband and wife Kait Bolongaro and Stuart Trevor were “sitting at home getting fat by dining out every day” after selling their shares in AllSaints, they decided it was time to get back to work. So in 2006 Bolongaro Trevor was born, with a cleaner contemporary design aesthetic and Victorian, military influences. Having dressed the likes of Gwen Stefani, Jude Law and Pendulum, they are known as the Frock and Roll couple of the fashion world.

To begin with they started a line with the fashion label Religion, and produced a collection called KAST. Having been so used to turning out a lot of product, by the time Kait and Stuart finished working on the collection it was vast but they had identified two strong elements: one more casual and one more tailored, revealing a lot of British inspiration.

On launching Bolongaro Trevor, both Kait and Stuart felt inspired to do something different to what they were doing at AllSaints. They went back to their roots with design and started again, bringing in far cleaner design aesthetic and finding influences in old pieces of clothing and flea markets. Kait has a love for clothes that have a function first. She’ll turn them inside out to look closely at the stitching, investigate how the seams are cut and the way the pockets are layered.

She loves the fact that there is a reason for everything and it isn’t just style and ornamentation.

As Kait tells us of her love for vintage clothing, she mentions how the Victorian era has always been a big part of both her and Stuart’s inspiration, however they are not restricted to only that as they often source inspiration from sub-cultures and music. Kait is familiar with sub-cultures,

having been a mod first before deciding to dive into the punk scene, and she speaks fondly of always remaining true to the punk within her: “Always, no matter what I do I need to give it a punky edge.

My girl is the type of girl who marches around with a scowl on the face. She is not your high powered, prim and proper girl. In fact, she’s a bit of a bitch. She’s fierce, and she’s a bit anti-establishment and I like that. That’s always in my heart”.

Kait knows that within sub-cultures there is a strong identity, but within today’s fashion creativity can quickly become generic and bland so she understands how important it is to develop a niche style.

“There’s enough high street uniformity and mundanity: it doesn’t interest me. We didn’t want to be a part of that.”

Bolongaro Trevor is a label that is flexible when it comes to things not being perfect. In a stance against fast fashion and a belief in allowing things to become organic with imperfections being praised rather than thrown out, the label leaves a lot of room for personality and a homemade touch to their clothing. “We found a little denim factory that was being closed down in East London, and we got the fella to get all the equipment out and we got a load of all different denims and did it in patchwork, and each piece was different but that was the beauty of it. We made 100 pieces, and handwrote in the back “1 of 100” I think there’s something to be said for that kind of clothing.”

One of many exciting traits that Bolongaro Trevor has is that the style of their garments aren’t rigid and don’t have to be worn a certain way. Kait herself enjoys a garment that can be worn a variety of ways, and talks about how there are no rules with their garments. “They’re not mine I’m doing it for you and you can have

it however you want. All shapes and sizes can wear the same garment in a number of different ways.”

Along with taking inspiration from the Victorian era and sub-cultures, Kait tells us how she is a sponge to the world around her when it comes to design inspiration.

She is open to anything that catches her eye, and is known for always carrying a camera and sketchbook in case she finds something intriguing. “You don’t have to love the whole thing, you might find just a little element that just takes you..” It is this natural instinct for offbeat individuality that flows through the Bolongaro Trevor design aesthetic.

“It comes down to a personal eye, we’ve all got our own song to sing haven’t we?”

publication

1. Lauren Noble 2. Alice Emily Day 3. Amy Roberts 4. Hope Harding 5. Katheryn Watson

1.

2.

4.

3.

5.

Luke Wharton

Sophie Green

Aimee Willsher

Sophie Cooper

Kelsey Lea

Lauren Smith

Alice Pearson

Qi Wei

Charlotte Treadwell

Beatrice Jackson

Amber Maidment

Victoria Millington

Margherita Rossi

Caitlin Martin

Nicole Wellard

Holly Anderson

Eleanor Dando

Rebecca Jenkins

Rheanna Coleman

Stefani Razhgeva

on r_peat [ the tunes that got us through ]

Kendrick Lamar _ Untitled 3 Drake _ Worst Behaviour Beyonce _ Sorry Princess Nokia (Destiny) _ Soul Train Abra _ Fruit Erykah Badu _ I’ll call you back Oshun _ The next day Stormzy _ Know me From Rihanna _ Work Drake _ One Dance

Craig David _ Fill me in NAO _ Fool to Love Ru Paul _ Sissy that walk Beyonce _ Don’t hurt yourself Destiny’s Child _ Survivor Drake _ Controlla

Solange _ Some things never seem to f*cking work Kali Uchis _ Ridin’ Round Justin Timberlake _ Senorita Rihanna _ Needed Me

Amber Maidment amberjanemaidment@gmail.com

womenswear Valandia Afendakis v.afendakis@gmail.com Floella Agbinor Rebecca Allen beccallen@hotmail.co.uk Holly Anderson holly@anderson95.co.uk Elspeth Bond els-bond@hotmail.co.uk Alice Carlzon alicecarlzon93@hotmail.com Hayley Carter hayley.carter95@hotmail.co.uk Rheanna Coleman rheannacolemandesign@yahoo.co.uk Emily Condon emily.c.95@live.co.uk Sophie Cooper sophie.cooper.design@gmail.com

Robyn Gardiner robynegardiner@aol.com

Caitlin Martin caitlin_m93@hotmail.co.uk

Ella Mcmillan ellamcmillan@icloud.com Victoria Millington victoria.millington@hotmail.com Teena Mistry teena.mistry92@outlook.com Michelle Obuya michelleobuya@gmail.com Frederick Olafsson frederick.olafsson.92@gmail.com Alice Pearson alicepearson@live.co.uk Stefani Razhgeva stefani.razhgeva@abv.bg Jeka Ross jekaross@aol.co.uk Margherita Rossi Yasmin Sadeghazar Lauren Smith lauren-smith-92@hotmail.com

Holly Halkes holly@halkes.co.uk

Charlotte Treadwell charlotte_treadwell@outlook.com

Sabina Ismailova alsouuu@hotmail.com

Beatrice Jackson beasjackson@hotmail.co.uk

Millie Turner millieturn94@hotmail.co.uk

Rebecca Jenkins rebeccajenkins43@gmail.com

Nicole Wellard nicole_wellard@hotmail.com

Tereza Kocichova teri.pampeliska@gmail.com

Laura Woolley laurakate.woolley@gmail.com

Qi Wei qiwei940401@gmail.com

menswear

image & communication

Eleanor Dando dandoeleanor@gmail.com

Emma Beckford emma.beckford@hotmail.co.uk

Samantha Graham samantharosegraham@hotmail.com

Sarah Hay sarah.hay@live.com

Sophie Brampton sophiebrampton@outlook.com

George Hollins george.hollins13@gmail.com

Charlotte Crockett charlottecrockett21@hotmail.co.uk

Rebekah Igor rebekahigor@gmail.com

Kelsey Lea lea.design@outlook.com

Alice Emily Day aliceemilyday@hotmail.com

Luke Wharton lukewhartonmenswear@gmail.com

childrenswear Sophia Brechon-Smith Katie Dore

Elizabeth Layte elizabethlayte@rocketmail.com Catherine Thompson catherinethompson94@hotmail.co.uk Kelly Wong kelly951@hotmail.co.uk

product Sophie Green sophie.green17@yahoo.com Aimee Willsher a_willsher@hotmail.co.uk

Ieva Ceica ieva.ceica@gmail.com

Amanda Green amanda-green94@hotmail.com

Hope Harding harding.hopesophia@gmail.com Libby Jacques libbyjacques94@gmail.com Paulina Kleparska pkleparska@gmail.com Jasmine Martin-Lord jasmineml95@live.com Lauren Noble lknoble26@hotmail.com Emily Reid reid.emmy@gmail.com Amy Roberts amyeroberts@outlook.com Lindsay Sawers ljsawers@aol.com Rachael Taylor rachaelcharmiantaylor@gmail.com

Katheryn Watson katheryn.watson.x@hotmail.co.uk

all on instagram

follow the feeds of our graduates to discover the next generation of emerging talent

follow

@aubfashion to keep up to date with what’s happening in our fashion studios

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@inspiredaub

Student Successes Charlotte Crockett

GFW 2016 Fashion Styling & Creative Direction Award finalist

Alice Emily Day & Emily Reid

GFW 2016 Drapers Fashion Publication Award finalists

Amanda Green

GFW 2016 Marketing Award finalist

Catherine Thompson & Jasmin Virdee

Mothercare 2016 Competition finalists

Charlotte Crockett

Diversity Now Photography & Styling Award finalist

Amy Roberts

Diversity Now Journalism Award finalist

Beatrice Jackson FAD 2016 finalist

Rebecca Jenkins & Luke Wharton

Hempel International Design Awards finalists (2 of 3 UK finalists)

Rebecca Allen

Lectra Kaledo® ‘Drape to Create’ Design Competition, in association with M&S runner up Holly Halkes The Liberty Open Call 2016 finalist

Holly Halkes

The Woolmark Company / Unmade (formally Knyttan) Competition 2015 Industry Prize Winner

Jasmine Martin-Lord & Lindsay Sawers

(Final year Fashion Image & Communication students) have been successfully chosen as two of the 2016 Ambassadors for the Costume Society UK

Current Projects

F & F Tesco competition March to June 2016 A collaborative pattern cutting/design competition between F&F clothing, Lectra, and Arts University Bournemouth. The winning garment will be sold online for Christmas 2016. The winner will also receive a 1 month placement at F&F head office, and a high specification laptop including software from Lectra

Study Fashion at Arts University Bournemouth The BA(Hons) Fashion course recognises the uniqueness of the individual and celebrates the sublime art of making and creative risk taking.

Through the journey of the course individuals will experience challenges and new possibilities whilst seeking unpredictable solutions to concept origination and product development. A guiding principle is to initially develop key skillsets which will underpin and inform a students personal design philosophy and a chosen area of specialism. Following this, individuals will be encouraged to make conscientious choices that question existing practices whilst embracing the importance of being confident and creatively diverse.

The course will deliver a challenging curriculum that embeds theory with practice and is rooted in professional contexts. It challenges and should exceed the educational expectations of AUB’s students and crystallise their industry relevance when progressing to alumni. The new BA(Hons) Fashion course, with four optional Award Titles, will encourage creative diversity through the energetic delivery of a challenging curriculum that has global and sustainable currency. Graduates will have the ability to assess, question, dream, conceptualise translate and deliver for a breadth of challenges and opportunities offered by the global creative industries.

Named Awards: BA BA BA BA

(Hons) (Hons) (Hons) (Hons)

Fashion Fashion Fashion Fashion

(Design) (Design Technology) (Image & Communication) * (Product)

* NEW BA (Hons) Fashion Communication course starting in 2017 (subject to validation)

For more information on studying at AUB please visit www.aub.ac.uk or contact admissions on +44 1202 363228 / hello@aub.ac.uk Arts University Bournemouth Wallisdown Poole Dorset BH12 5HH

a big thank you to all our contributors Graduate Collections Photography Rebecca Elizabeth Tate BA (Hons) Commercial Photography (Fashion) www.rebeccaelizabethtate.com Lead Hair & Make-up Natasha Sultana BA (Hons) Make-up for Media & Performance (Hair and Make-up for Fashion) www.natashasultanamua.co.uk Hair Mimi Wilson BA (Hons) Make-up for Media & Performance (Hair and Make-up for Fashion) Models Isobella Bowering at The Squad Zoe de Boer at All Eyes On You Jess Chen Jack Sheldrake Fola Adeyoola

Design & Art Direction Ieva Ceica Alice Emily Day Emily Reid Amy Roberts Rachael Taylor Anna Konig Victoria McClenaghan Esther Yarnold

Supported by

Printed by Xadon www.xadon.co.uk

www.aub.ac.uk

2016