Graduate Lauren Smith - Winner of Gold Award

Graduate Fashion Week 2013 Gala catwalk review by Sarah Marie, images by Lin Vitali

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Graduate Fashion Week 2013

Graduate fashion week 2013 came to a bravura finale on June 5th 2013 following four days of showcasing graduates’ exciting and innovating designs from institutes all over the country. The fashion week is a non-profit event founded to showcase the best of Britain's emerging talent, and celebrating its 22nd year, Graduate Fashion Week promulgated some of the best young, aspiring designers the country has to offer. As expected, the creativity unveiled by the graduates portrayed why British fashion is to be admired, and bestowed an insight to the invigorating ideas that will be hitting the catwalks in the near future.

Graduate Fashion Week is the biggest graduate fashion event in the world; hosted in London every year it can resolutely be regarded as a perceptible way to get a foot on the fashion world’s ladder. Known to promote employability, it is widely cogitated the best place for potential employers and prominent names in the fashion industry to catch a glimpse of undiscovered new and evolving designers. When searching for the next big names, the next fashion house workers and the next head of couture houses, fashion experts indubitably turn to Graduate Fashion Week. Having already launched the careers of many including Christopher Bailey, Julien Macdonald, Stella McCartney, Antonio Berardi, Giles Deacon and Richard Nicoll, Graduate Fashion week has provided and continues to offer an indispensable platform to promising young talent who are trying to break into and promote themselves in a challenging industry.

This year’s fashion graduates presented their convincingly strong capabilities and managed to draw in a strong crowd including the likes of David Gandy, Mary Katrantzou and St. Martin’s Louise Wilson. Unfortunately there was no sign of Victoria Beckham; she missed out on the amazing catwalk debut of imminent fashion stars, as Henry Holland and Zara Martin hosted the event which honoured the high quality of unmistakable talent debuting at Graduate Fashion Week 2013.

Collection by the Golden Graduate Girl

Lauren Smith Claims Coveted Prize at Graduate Fashion Week 2013

Amongst the volume of gifted alumni, one girl and her collection stood out from more than a thousand of the top BA degree fashion students from forty two universities around the world, and that girl was 23 year old Edinburgh College of Art student Lauren Smith.

Unknown to many yet, this budding young designer was praised by judge and French fashion designer, Roland Mouret for her technique and personality as she saw off stiff competition to be awarded the George Gold Award at Earls Court. The biggest prize in British fashion saw Lauren be presented with £20,000 cash to help her launch her fashion career, she will also see her winning collection form part of new graduate designer range produced and stocked exclusively at George stores around the world, and will receive a head start in the retail industry with a four week fully paid internship at George HQ with a team of leading designers: most certainly, a novice fashion designer's dream.

The Winning 'Doodle' Collection

Speaking of her win Lauren stated she was 'overwhelmed' yet 'thrilled' for her work to be granted with the prestigious award. The extensive assortment of enchanting designs and wonderful alumni meant that this was no forgone conclusion, so what exactly was it that caused Lauren Smith to be the name on everyone's lips?

Fending off tough fashion competition is never an easy job, however long you have been in the business, and it necessitates a show stopping collection in order to do so; Lauren delivered this. Her runaway was awash with appliquéd paperclips, dreamlike prints, and array of fabrics from tulle to leather in her whimsical blue, yellow and white womens wear designs.

The 23 year old's imaginative six piece collection was inspired by 'doodles', looking at unfinished work of artists such as Dieter Roth, using the rough illustrations to focus on her own creative route, extracting 'doodles' and utilizing them for the digital prints in the collection. A designer whose scribbles are turned into delicate embroidery, and hand drawn doodles are transformed into charming prints; portraying an earnest combination paired in an unexpected way, representing the actions of creativity and cherished interaction between sketchbook and catwalk. The inventive nature of the fanciful designer wowed the judges, prompting them to label her work as ‘emotional’ and name her queen of the graduates.

A Fashion Star Is Born

Lauren was in awe of her surroundings, company and victory as she commented on the 'surreal' experience. Setting out with limited expectations, she was just ecstatic to see her designs parade the runway, never imagining she could win, the modest Lauren was just hoping to see if people would react positively to her quirky assemblage.

Roland Mouret's words on the collection were positive indeed. Calling Lauren a deserving winner, he declared it was nice to give the award to a person 'who has the personality to match the techniques used in their collection.' Having seen Lauren Smith's pieces and meeting her, Mr Mouret thought it was demonstrable her collection 'was an extension of herself, and the personality of the designer has to be linked to their clothing' and he alongside the other judges believed they found that with Edinburgh College of Art graduate Lauren.

Fiona Lambert, George Brand Director revealed: "We've had a fantastic week meeting all of the graduates and seeing their work. We've been genuinely amazed by the quality, creativity and professionalism of this year’s graduates." She then revealed that despite the difficult decision the judges faced, Lauren was chosen as the winner of the notorious prize as a result of her designs which reflected her character, showing her 'real vision and craftsmanship'. Ms Lambert who presented Lauren with her award then continued to say she is eagerly awaiting working with the aspiring graduate on her upcoming collection for George.

Whilst absorbing the copious amounts of praise Lauren commented that it was a complete 'shock' to win and humbly thanked the praise she received from well-known fashion experts who hinted their desire to wear some of her pieces. When asked what the future holds, Lauren seemed in no rush to propel herself into the stimulating, hectic industry of the fashion and design world. Stating that she has been granted a scholarship by Edinburgh College of Art to study for a MA degree, and expand her studies focusing on textiles and surface manipulation She also included she was 'quite eager' to stay in Scotland but will definitely await what else is offered to her.

We hope this British girl embarked as 'one to watch' doesn't hide away for too long in Edinburgh, as it isn't only bonnie Scotland that wishes to celebrate, but the rest of the fashion world that eagerly awaits this golden graduate girl's certified arrival.