A student at Gray’s School of Art has won the chance to see one of their designs feature in New York Fashion Week.
Third year fashion and textiles student Bethan Nadin (20), from Brora, was selected as the winner of a live project with New York label Degen and Glasgow-based Dead Sleekit.
The former Golspie High School pupil will now have the opportunity to work with Lindsay Degen on a piece for her next collection, which will be shown during New York Fashion Week, as well as spend time on placement with Iain Macdonald who runs Dead Sleekit.
Runner-up Emma Hopper (22) will also get the chance to go on placement at Dead Sleekit.
As part of the project, students were required to come up with concepts for a trapeze dress that reflected the brief title of ‘Making It Personal’, designing a range of styles on paper before translating them into samples.
The final pieces are on display at Aberdeen Business School until December 18
Bethan said: “I’m delighted and totally shocked to have won this opportunity – I think it will take quite a while to sink in. I found the project really fun, it has been my favourite project so far because we had a bit more freedom to choose our own theme and I enjoyed that.”
Inspired by her love of the outdoors, Bethan chose to explore her interpretation of freedom to tie in with the floaty nature of the trapeze dress.
“I’m very into outdoor sports like rock climbing and hill running, and when I’m out I take pictures of things I think are inspiring or beautiful, “ she said. “So I had a lot of photographs that I could use for inspiration.
“I’m really looking forward to working with Lindsay and Iain and finding out more about the industry and what is involved in the day to day running of a fashion label. It will be great to see where they get their ideas from too, and the thought that one of the pieces I work on with Lindsay will be shown at New York Fashion Week is incredible.”
The placements will add to what is already shaping up to be a busy 2016 for Bethan, who will embark on a 10 week stint of work experience in February with high end textiles company Umesh Enterprises in Mumbai which works with big name labels such as Gucci, Burberry and Tom Ford.
“The work experience in India will be a great experience and an opportunity to immerse myself in a totally different culture,” she said.
Talking about how Degen got involved in the project, Lindsay said: “Last year some of the students visited my studio in Brooklyn on their NYC trip and their lecturer asked me if I would be interested in being a guest critic. I love working with students so of course I said yes.
“The students that stood out most to me during the project had a different perspective. The weight of colour and texture of Bethan’s piece was perfect. It’s easy to overdo it with either colour or texture or both. To me, she really found the right balance of open space and composition.”
She added: “I love working with new people because they always have a different skill to bring to the table so I’m really looking forward to working with Bethan. I love to learn from my students.”
Iain, who graduated from Gray’s himself, said: “When I read the project brief I was so excited by it and thought how much I would have loved it when I was a student so I knew I had to say yes to being involved.
“The standard of work coming from the Stage 3 students is amazing, it's really inspiring to see the talent coming out of Gray’s. They all had original ideas and concepts and made it personal to them - it was refreshing to see their creativity.
“It was the colour in Bethan’s piece which stood out to me at first but I was looking at everything, from the sample to the finished product, and I believe she delivered this right up to her editorial photo shoot and choice of model and location - visually it all looked unique, professional and ready to sell.”
He added: “I am looking forward to working with both Bethan and Emma - I have a few new collection ideas lined up and it will be fun to work with people from Gray’s.”
Stage 3 Fashion and Textiles co-ordinator, Rachel Heeley, said: “We were delighted to have both Iain and Lindsay on board to work with our students on this project.
“They are both doing really exciting things in the fashion industry with their labels Degen and Dead Sleekit and the insight and expertise they can offer the students is invaluable.
“Working with Lindsay on a new garment for her next collection, which will be shown at New York Fashion Week, and spending time at Dead Sleekit is a huge opportunity for an emerging designer and it is fantastic to see how the students have responded to the brief.”