High end designer has a hand in selecting students for Graduate Fashion Week Catwalk Show

Luxury designer, Daniel Hanson, was part of the University of Northampton’s judging panel to decide which students will showcase their final year collection on the catwalk at this year’s Graduate Fashion Week.

Nottingham-based Daniel is best known for designing bespoke dressing gowns, from towelling robe up to cashmere wrap-arounds, which are stocked in high end department stores, such as Harrods and Selfridges in London and Barneys and Bergdorf Goodman in New York. His clients range from the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge to Elton John, Victoria Beckham, Brad Pitt and Sean Connery.

Daniel was invited to join the judging panel formed by the University’s Fashion department, along with Deborah Britz, Graduate Fashion Week show producer on Tuesday 2 May, which resulted in 15 students from across all fashion pathways being selected for the University’s Catwalk Show.

Each student submitted their final year collections and were judged on a number of criteria, such as creativity, technical excellence and individuality.

Daniel said: “I found the collections to be very varied and it’s lovely to see how much they have come on over the last few months. I wish them all the best of luck for Graduate Fashion Week and beyond.”

Deborah said: “I have been really impressed by some of the colour palettes that the students have used and the use of different fabrics. There are some really impressive pieces that I’ve seen today.”

Julie King , Head of Fashion at the University of Northampton, commented: “Having two external judges helping with the selection helps our students gain a different perspective on their work. We value their input tremendously and are so proud to see the quality and diversity of the work produced this year.

The 15 students, Mollie Crabtree, Lauren Jones, Courtney Allen, Stephanie Clift, Louise Gunn, Ola Kukla, Sumaiya Neher, Bethany Martin, Halima Begum, Elena Hristova, Gemma Stevens, Loren Buckingham, Sharon Mensah, Leah Wanjugu, Venula Wickramaarachi, will all see their collections come to life on the catwalk during Graduate Fashion Week.

Themes range from international traditions from countries such as Sri Lanka, Bulgaria and Poland to sporting activities, such as cycling and parachuting, with some more serious issues, such as deconstruction, depression and mental health awareness, war and even the negative aspects of social media being woven in.

Graduate Fashion Week has been firmly established as the world’s leading event for fashion graduates and this year takes place from Sunday 4 to Wednesday 7 June at the Truman Brewery in Shoreditch. The University of Northampton’s Catwalk Show takes place on Tuesday 6 June at 12:30pm.