Every June, Islington’s Business Design Centre plays host to some of the most exciting offerings this years graduates have to bring in the New Designers Exhibition Part 1. Hawthorne and Heaney  went down to see what it was all about this year and to bring you the most exciting pieces. With the show split into sections where each university champions their best students, there is plenty to see.

Nottingham Trent University exhibited some work from students such as Hannah Croft of Muuna. Her work has a beautiful crystalline quality as she blurs the line between minerals and fabric fusing them together. She combines practises from her experience as an embroidery and woven designer to create these visually intriguing pieces.

There was also work by Josey Mendez who works predominately with CAD embroidery and fabric manipulation to create this collection which she exhibited called ‘Movement of Nature’ which is inspired by the contrast of shorelines.

Rosamund Hanny has produced a very beautiful collection of samples which include pages technique, CAD and ombre tassels to create these elegant installations which traverse art, textile design and fashion. Featured were pieces from her award winning collection ‘Wings and Feathers’ as well as a piece from her anticipated new collection  ‘Fins and Scales’. Inspired by the natural world, Hanny’s work is underpinned by a strong ethical design philosophy. Incorporating environmentally conscious processes such as exhaust dyeing, along with up-cycled materials including vintage wedding dress silks

‘Wings and Feathers is a textile art installation inspired by the vibrancy and fragility of nature. The work synchronises traditional and contemporary techniques to create overworked and innovative textile pieces, incorporating digital and hand embroidery, sublimation printing and exhaust dyeing.’

Another designer who stood out from the One Year On section was Alice Wheatley of ‘This is Alice’ . Her glass wear pieces have an other worldly quality with their body parts captured in the glass which is both intriguing and unsettling.

‘This is a concept installation, a reflection of entrapment. This is indiscriminate and indifferent, a fateful episode. This is suppressed and secreted, an estrangement from being. This is an existence, a life with consequences. This is a restriction and confinement, a history of forgotten and forsaken people. This is somebody else’s life, a moment, take a look. This is Alice.’

The new designers exhibition is only on for a few days each year so make sure you watch out for the window of opportunity to see the collection while it is on. The best of luck to all the new graduates which showed and well done! We are already looking forward to next year…