The White Show is a celebrated annual project for which every first-year BA Fashion student creates a look from a piece of white fabric. Through collaboration, BA Fashion Communication students then conceptualise and present the resulting 150 looks as a collective piece. In previous years, the physical show has taken place in the College building for the entire community to enjoy. With our buildings closed due to lockdown, this year's White Show goes digital for the first time.
This year's show is arranged across three chapters: VOID, ODYSSEY and MONITUS, each one presenting a different pathway of the BA Fashion course. Reflecting on the show as a whole – as well as interviewing individual students – Sarah Mower wrote in Vogue:
VOID
Our world has entered a collective state of liminality, with our lives and creative practices existing in permanent limbo. A void. Thus, becoming what you make of it; a purgatory, a portal, a waiting room. To be here it is to be rid of construct, to challenge fashions long-standing runway delivery by erasing the muse. As part of The White Show, VOID will present the work of BA Fashion: Fashion Design Womenswear students in an alternate space with no boundaries, isolating the garments as artefacts.
Text by Yiling Zhao
ODYSSEY
A tripartite succession, inviting our audience to undergo a journey alongside this year’s BA Fashion: Fashion Design Menswear and BA Fashion: Fashion Design with Marketing students as they display their responses to the progression from the omnipresent chaos found in our current reality, to the darkness when faced with Oblivion to finally the tranquility of rebirth. Acting as a metaphor reflecting the need to reassess modern society, this new beginning will allow for an evolution of values, away from the institutional failures and havoc caused by this year’s pandemic and ultimately transporting us to a place of optimism and hope.
Text by Tiffany Lee
MONITUS
In the digital age it feels as if our right to autonomy seldom exists. Despite being observed, tracked and monitored we disregard the encroachment of surveillance based technologies on our daily ives. The system has gained access to every aspect of our identities through our reliance on interconnectivity, with surveillance strategies built in to our devices and communities. As our reality feels more disconnected than ever we have taken the opportunity to reimagine The White Show, speaking explicitly about the supremacy of technology in modern society. MONITUS showcases the garments of BA Fashion: Fashion Print and BA Fashion: Fashion Design with Knitwear students in an ironically digital location.
Text by Katie Hudson