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LCF students spotlight Farah’s subcultural influence

Person smiling at camera, next to roll down poster of model dressed in grey garment.
  • Written byLondon College of Fashion
  • Published date 12 February 2025
Person smiling at camera, next to roll down poster of model dressed in grey garment.
Student Work, Tobin Harland, Photography by James Moyles

To kick off the 2024-25 Academic year, London College of Fashion (LCF), UAL collaborated with Farah to bring public attention to their historical presence within generations of subcultural movements.

Farah’s history in making clothes spans the globe, from Japanese Wool Jackets, American Denim, Hopsack produced in Dublin, and Knitwear made in Scotland.

Rory Parnell-Mooney, Lecturer Menswear Design and Development, cocreated a brief in collaboration with Farah for BA (Hons) Fashion Design Technology: Menswear students. As part of the project, Farah gave students access to “The Archive”, a collection of clothes carefully curated over years to showcase the rich history of the Farah brand spanning over a century. Drawing inspiration from this archive, and the subcultures Farah has influenced, students designed and created one outfit using the brand’s signature hopsack fabric.

Person standing in grey clothing against grey background. Blurred in the middle of the photo.
Student Work, Tobin Harland, Photography by James Rees, Creative Direction, Rob Phillips

35 students presented designs to the Farah team, including Creative Director, Christopher O’Brien, Designer, Reece Clayton, Marketing Director, Mia Zackrisson, and Senior Marketing Coordinator, Masie Cook.

The team was impressed by the quality of the work throughout and selected Tobin Harland as the overall winner of the project, with Noa Ahir and Roberts Zujans as runners up.

The project was both challenging and rewarding, offering me the freedom to innovate while pushing me to grow professionally in a short amount of time.

— Tobin Harland, Overall Winner
Groupf of people looking at a laptop on a table with sketches and colourful designs also surrounding laptop.
Farah team reviewing runner up Noa’s work. Photography by Kushagra Anand
I thought the placement prints were really well considered, and you could really see how this could develop into a full catwalk collection.

— Christopher O’Brien, Farah’s Creative Director, about Tobin’s winning piece.
Collage of two images showing models in different clothing displayed in a gallery.
Image 1: Student Work by runner up Noa Ahir, Photography by James Moyles, Image 2: Student Work by runner up Roberts Zujans, Photography by James Moyles

The student’s creative responses, including photos, videos, and garments were displayed in a weeklong showcase last month in the Wolfson Studio at LCF’s East Bank campus, courtesy of Farah.