Graduate Fashion Week was launched in 1992 to co-ordinate the presentation of collections produced by a number of Britain’s top fashion courses. Each year the event receives greater and greater international interest, and with the caliber of former graduates including Stella McCartney, Antonio Beradi, Julian MacDonald and Owen Gaster, it’s no surprise. The watching eye of the fashion world increasingly turns to the UK to spot the next great talent to emerge from the very colleges that Graduate Fashion Week represents.

The Graduate Fashion Week team write:

Graduate Fashion Week is one of the major annual highlights of the London fashion scene, presenting the work of graduating fashion students from across the country, to the press, trade and public.

The event took place over four days in June 2001 at Planit 2000, a venue in London’s Shoreditch. Involving 37 top fashion colleges from around Great Britain and with 19 of these colleges staging catwalk shows, this year saw 13 awards being presented, divided between a special evening view of the exhibition and the Gala Show.

Showcasing some of the most talented fashion graduates from design and illustration through to marketing, new media and promotion, this is the only opportunity to view the future generation of fashion stars together in one place. The event itself is totally unique with no other country in the world investing in fashion graduates on this scale. British creative industries are worth £60 billion per year with fashion playing a major part.

The Graduate Fashion Week show toured to Colombia, Syria, Lebanon, China, Singapore and Vietnam. The show returned to Colombia and Singapore with the best of 2002 collections.

Project Manager: Alice Cicolini