Leather straight-jacket inspiration
25 May 2010A UK student’s collection inspired by restriction, straight jackets and the textures of animal hide will appear on the catwalk at London’s Graduate Fashion Week in June. Gemma Francis, a third year Fashion Design student at Leicester’s De Montfort University (DMU) has used shiny and matt metallic leather, metal studs and custom-made nails in her catwalk collection, which is to appear at the prestigious event at Earls’ Court on June 8. The leather was supplied by GH Leather.
Cow leather, as well as pig and lambskin are key features within her garments, providing subtle variations in texture and visual appearance. She also used metal buckles, clips and commissioned an engineer to make metal nails with special screw threads to allow her to secure pieces to her garments.
The 21-year-old from Maidstone, said: ‘I really pushed myself to the limit with my final collection and put a lot of time into researching silhouettes and imaginative use of fabrics and techniques. This is what led me to the idea of using different animal skin within each piece. All of the material used in my collection has been carefully sourced and is a bi-product of the meat industry.’
‘At the outset, I explored the effect that restriction and types of torture have on the body and designed pieces that change the shape of the body, creating awkward silhouettes influenced by my research.’
Gemma was given the chance to showcase her collection at Graduate Fashion Week when the original selection panel gathered on May 4 to pick the students to make the final catwalk cut. On the panel were Karen Millen and Anthony Campbell, who has designed for friend and fashion label founder, Richard Nicoll
Karen Millen, said: ‘What was impressive about the students was the really varied techniques they were using to create some really individual pieces that will look fantastic on the catwalk.’
