College students paraded eccentric evening dresses, delicate oriental designs, printed silks and quirky day collections at the College’s fashion show.

Having worked hard to develop their collections over the past ten weeks, the second year BTEC Fashion & Clothing students used their own interpretations of various themes to produce individual fashions to a professional standard. Their final creations were displayed on the catwalk to members of the public at the Guildhall on Monday 22 June.

Fashion Lecturer Joy Townsend said, ‘This is an annual event, however, this year in particular there’s been exceptional talent and creativity. The students were very excited about the reactions from guests and I am very proud of their efforts. They learnt to deal with a number of challenges and showed professionalism in their working practices which is especially important in this current climate. The show provided a realistic backdrop for the students to present their work. It was a perfect finale to the course.’

The promising designers were asked to choose from eight different themes to produce a collection of day and evening wear. They also had to take into account the current trends, colours and fabrics and choose a season on which to base their collections.

Emma Beedie, 20 from Wootton went with an oriental theme for her evening collection. She’s used elaborate pleated bows and sculptured silks to come up with an impressive fashion which looked stunning on the catwalk.

She said, ‘I used a lot of structured shapes based heavily on Japanese pagodas. There were lots of big bows and dramatic colours. I wanted to go for drama and I think I achieved it. The show was a great experience.’