Fashion students get creative for live industry project

Fashion students from the University of Northampton have been put through their paces working on a live industry brief for industry professionals.

Leading global brand Schwarzkopf and award-winning Midlands hair salon chain Hensmans teamed up to challenge second year Fashion, Textiles and Footwear & Accessory students to put together collections. Each collection needed to comprise three outfits based on Schwarzkopf’s Essential Looks, with the students working together in small teams to research, design and produce their collections and portfolios.

Each collection was presented to an expert panel comprising Schwarzkopf and Hensmans professionals, who picked the team comprising Amber Rawlins, Grace Owusu, Seven Limasollu, Kirsten Wan, Nicholas Fowler-Ekar.

View the gallery, below – pictures taken by Photography student James Wayling.

Nicholas said: “We are ecstatic that we’ve won. It’s been a tough few months, lots of hard work but also fun.

“Being given the chance to work with industry professionals from Schwarzkopf and Hensmans, and to get feedback from them, has been amazing. It’s given us a real taste of what to expect in the industry, where standards have to be so high.”

Marketing and digital manager for Schwarzkopf, Marina Fallahi, who was one of the judges, said: “We were delighted with the designs the student came up with, it’s clear there’s a lot of talent at the University.

“It was really interesting to see how they interpreted the brief, and the imagination and creativity that came out of the process.”

Gemma Hensman, director for Hensmans, said: “This has been a fantastic opportunity for the students to work with both us, and Schwarzkopf.

“They did extremely well, pitching their ideas to the panel, which is almost like a job interview at times. They also learned a valuable lesson, in that you need to stick to a client’s brief, because if you don’t, you won’t get that job.”