The first Gala show of the evening was to feature all the student designers shortlisted for the various prestigious awards. Nominated for The Stewart Peters Visionary Knitwear Award, Genevieve was one of the three designers shortlisted along with students Wonjee Chung from Nottingham and Trent University and Charlotte Walters from The University of Salford. Genevieves colourful and crayon-like designs, incorporating both cut outs and fur trims, added a playful element to a grown up silhouette.

The Northumbria show on Sunday 5 June turned out to be a resounding success, with 22 students showcasing their work on the catwalk.

The carefully selected soundtrack and accompanying video backdrop gave the show a really exciting atmosphere; every collection had its own handwriting and style. This truly is what Northumbria does best: creating innovative and experimental fashion which reflects every student’s personality and allows for diversity.

So, here it is. The moment every fashion student has been anticipating and hoping for, for the whole of their degree course. Three years of hard work crammed with creativity, culminated into one 45 minute catwalk show. For the 24 students selected to show their designs on the runway, the mood was one of nervous excitement as the audience filled Theatre A and awaited to be wowed. They were certainly not disappointed.

To be nominated for an award at Graduate Fashion Week is a huge achievement, but to be nominated for two is the sure sign of a huge talent. I caught up with Zahiah Alawneh from Manchester School of Art, who has achieved

Womenswear designers Jennie Dyer and Mark Williams have a very different design aesthetic from one another but they share some common ground with both of them having been equally successful in the execution of their accessory designs that accompany their collections. Both will be showing their collections, complete with accessories at the Kingston catwalk show this afternoon but yesterday was an equally important day for them as the judges from the Mulberry Accessories Award came to talk to then about their work.

As the first day of Graduate Fashion Week kicked off, visitors to the Kingston University stand were in for a treat. In addition to the previous year’s portfolio and video presentation, this years display has been re-designed to include a static exhibition of three dimensional design work. This work is not only a taster of things to come, but an exclusive chance to catch a glimpse of even more of what this university’s abundance of raw talented students has to offer, as these designers are showcased in addition to those who will be exhibiting in the catwalk show tomorrow.

Amy Komocki, Laura Helen Searle and Lauren Sanins are just three of the students benefiting from the exhibition as visitors get the chance to appreciate their designs in much more detail by getting up-close and personal with the pieces. The work from these students is particularly successful in this format due to the embellishment used.

I’ve just got home from my first day at Graduate Fashion Week and am feeling surprisingly exhausted! Despite being a rainy Sunday, the first official day of the event had a fantastic turn out, I even spotted a few famous faces in the form of The Clothes Show’s Caryn Franklin and Indesign founder Julius Schofield. With a good spot near the front of the venue, I immediately noticed our stand which stood out with it’s individual use of chalk boards.