Second year BA students’ collaboration with designers Charles Jeffery and Per Götesson

Second year BA Fashion Design Technology: Menswear and BA Textiles students worked together in a collaborative project with Loverboy designer Charles Jeffery.  The students were allocated ‘fashion explorer’ themes related to their research trips to the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford. The students were split in teams then had to create capsule collections. The unit was partly taught by NEWGEN designer Per Götesson, while Charles Jeffery, gave advice and direction to the teams. We asked two students about their team’s projects. Youbin Lee and his team referenced Amelia Earhart, while Aaron Eshref and his team worked on the theme of travel.

Youbin Lee

Our concept started with the explorer Amelia Earhart, an American aviation pioneer, author and most importantly the first female aviator to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean. We started looking at Earhart's look and 1930s womenswear such as jumpsuits and head pieces. We incorporated the idea of kites; played with 3D work; used CAD, digital printing, screen printing, and laser cuttings.

We met with the textile students weekly. We learned how to collaborate on our ideas and we learned so many skills from them. We learned many things from tutors’ feedback like fabric selection, how to professionally present our garments, and finishing skills. It was interesting to hear Charles Jeffery’s opinion as his unique collections affected the fashion industry.

We had so much fun in this collaboration! The most interesting part was to use other skills from the textile students. I think collaborative projects are a wonderful foundation in university.

Aaron Eshref

We focused on the concept of travel, creating a story of journey and romanticism. We wanted our collection to relate with a narrative of love and travel. We juxtaposed two worlds: the Queen Adelaide party boy living in thrifting, eclectic east London nestled amongst the Capri, luxury cocktails on the yacht lifestyle.

Charles Jeffery helped us focus on the details of our design to show our message in a mature and considered way. This lesson was invaluable, and we are all planning on keeping this lesson in mind for our final year. Charles’ energy was really fun! There was a sense of enjoyment and humour, which we try to include in our look book, video and portfolio.

The collaboration with other courses felt as if we were in a professional design studio. Team work was vital to our individual development. We learned a lot from other courses, such as seeing the technicalities that goes into experimentation and production of textiles through knit, embroidery and print individually was incredible and the results of that work really made the collection special.

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