Ulster University Graduate Fashion show

Dress by Amy Roulston

I was so delighted to get a chance to view the Ulster University Fashion department's recent graduate show.

I do love a good graduate show.

It’s always really interesting to get the inside scoop on who the newest faces, designers and ideas are. Every single famous designer out there has started with the sweat, blood and tears of a graduate show so its always worth paying attention to the stand out designers. It's also worth collecting the names of students that you think might be worth commissioning or talking to about buying catwalk pieces. Remember Isabella Blow once bought Alexander McQueen's graduate collection in it's entirety - image how much that is worth now!

Above and below image by Roseanna Crawford

While the show was excellent, I have to say that I had three favourites. I was initially drawn to the shapes of Roseanna Crawford’s work. Her white cocoon shaped dress had a futuristic feeling to it and I really enjoyed how she played with this dimension within her other pieces. The second designer I liked was Niamh McCusker who created the beautiful orange striped piece. I really enjoyed the use of colour and texture. Jordan Robinson also impressed me with the beautiful turquoise dress that managed to really pop on the catwalk. I loved how I could see movement within the piece. I was initially drawn to clicking on the image because it almost looked like water from afar. Although all of it was wonderful, those were my favourites!

Dress by Jordan Robinson

As I said, always interesting to see the hard work that goes into producing a graduate show. While I’ve never done a graduate fashion show - I have done a graduate show when I was in sculpture in art college and that was bad enough. I genuinely feel for anyone preparing to send 4-7 garments down the catwalk to judgmental people like me. I wish everyone the best of luck with their careers.

“Fashion followers from across the island of Ireland gathered at the Europa Hotel last night, as some of the country’s newest and emerging home-grown designers launched their collections to the public. CMPR models helped the runway burst into life as they fashioned an array of different designs in a multitude of colours and a variety of different textiles wowing audiences at the Ulster University Fashion Graduate Catwalk Show.