Paige describes her ‘flare’ for fashion with her 70s inspired Graduate Fashion Week collection

​As Graduate Fashion Week kicks off tomorrow (Saturday 30 May), we are featuring some of our students who will be showcasing their collections on the catwalk.

Today, final year Fashion student Paige Alexander talks about the challenges she faced when designing her final collection: “I was quite late deciding what I wanted to do, but as I had already studied Art at Sixth Form and then did a two-year college course, I found that everything always led back to fashion.

My collection is very 70s-themed, but that wasn’t my original focus. I started off looking at evening gowns with freehand embroidery on dissolvable fabric, but it didn’t work out so I changed my direction. I used the embroidery I’d already created for my prints, edited them on Photoshop and made them more on trend instead.

I like designing something that I’d like to wear and that’s how I chose the fabrics and patterns. I’ve been working a lot with silk, which isn’t easy, but my digital images print well on it and its nice and floaty.

I wasn’t planning to go away to university and had decided to stay in my home town, but my friend from college was already at the University of Northampton and she recommended it to me so after a last-minute decision I applied through Clearing.

I am planning to go travelling for a month in Europe after I graduate and then I plan to set up my own business at home. I would like to carry on designing and making accessories and clothing with my own prints. I’d like to see someone like Paloma Faith or Fearne Cotton wearing my collection due to the 70s-vibe.”

Click here for more details about the students involved with Graduate Fashion Week.