Students from De Montfort University put on an incredible catwalk show last night at London’s Freemasons’ Hall to showcase their final year collections. Twenty graduates from the world renowned Contour Fashion course unveiled the result of three years dedicated to designing cutting edge collections to some of the industry’s biggest names, including representatives from Gossard, Triumph, Freya, ASOS, Gap and M&S. This year’s event was supported by Gossard, who opened the night with a catwalk show previewing the Spring/Summer 2017 collections.
DMU graduate Becky Nebel, a chief lingerie designer for M&S, said: “I thought it was a fantastic show. It was great to see so many sports influences coming through on the catwalk. I think casualisation has hit DMU and there is less of a focus on traditional lingerie. It was also really interesting to see new technologies being incorporated into their work. But overall I think the leisure influences were really exciting.”
Penny Newton-Norris, who graduated in Contour Fashion in 2010 is now a swimwear technologist for Internet fashion house ASOS. She said: “The show was really, really good. The detail was amazing and we saw students pushing boundaries with panel working and embellishment. It made me really miss being part of the show with DMU – all the tears and the stress. I wish I could go back and do it again. The students did an amazing job. They are always pushing boundaries, those contour girls at DMU.”
De Montfort University has had an amazing year with many finalists and winners in national and international competitions, including the GFW Creative Catwalk Gala Award, won by BA (Hons) Fashion Design graduate Hazel Symons, who then went on to win the GFW Christopher Bailey GOLD Award.
