Whilst fashion week celebrates luxury, performing arts and fashion students tackle the industry’s waste crisis 

Students studying fashion design and fashion visual communication at Capital City College (CCC) marked London Fashion Week by transforming surplus table linens into 24 avant-garde looks.

Last Friday, CCC students hosted an avant-garde fashion show at Camden’s Chalton Street Market, showcasing 41 designs, of which 24 were created from repurposed table linens donated by local supplier Empire Laundry.

The collection was created by teams of students at CCC, who were challenged to reimagine surplus materials as high-fashion statement pieces.

Andrew Scassolini MIH, Key Account Director at Empire Laundry said,

“It was a pleasure to donate linens from our warehouse and see them go to a good cause. We donate extra materials to charity and the stock will be reused for various purposes, so it’s wonderful to see them repurposed in this way and help students be creative in their college lessons.”

Models were chosen from students studying performing arts and fashion at CCC, some of whom walked in a catwalk show earlier this year dedicated to showcasing interview-ready and work-appropriate outfits featuring second-hand clothing donated by Dress for Success Greater London and Central District Alliance.

The location for the event was kindly provided by Camden Council free of charge. The show opened with sets from student DJs, instrumental performances and finished with dance performances from the college’s students. Benches for attendees were borrowed from the college, as were microphones and musical equipment, keeping the costs of running the fashion show to a minimum.

The catwalk show addressed a theme called ‘After… The Feast’, where students created avant-garde looks and outfits based on the idea of after a feast, what happens to the linens used after parties?

The idea of repurposing donated materials is a brief on sustainability in fashion that arts students at the college are challenged to consider and address when designing outfits for projects. 

Rebecca Tristram, Head of School of Arts for CCC, said:

“It is a fact that the fashion industry has a sustainability problem, but coming up with solutions is something we are teaching our students. There is too much fast fashion in circulation right now, but if we set challenges for our students to think about alternatives and to think first about reusing, repurposing, saving and using donated materials and fabrics, it challenges their creativity, encourages problem solving and gives them experience and sets briefs that real designers will have to face.”

Following the catwalk show, the students’ designs will return to the college where they will be put on display and shown in the college’s winter exhibition. What outfits are not taken by the students will be returned to the workroom where they will be deconstructed, reused and repurposed by fashion students for future projects.