This LFW The Grey Zine team were impressed to see the angry, sustainable, interesting designs that flooded out, not from the big design houses, but from independent brands and notably - from students.

The major design houses can throw budget at beautiful pieces, but they are too scared to make statements - well, aside from implying we should all get skinnier, all wear less, or all aspire to be like the celebrities they send down the runways.

Meanwhile independent designers with shoestring budgets aspire to world build, make statements and include real people on their runways. It’s much more inspiring. The most inspiring of all are the fashion students who are as young as 18 years old and using their practice to make direct, angry, political statements. It gives us a lot of hope for the future of the industry, if they can keep that energy, and change future shows into exhibitions of rebels and divergents - not clout competitions.

In London LCF’s MA students took over the new Stratford campus with beautifully assembled pieces by the Garment Technology students, as well as highly conceptual and meaningful works by the Fashion Futures and Fashion Artefact students.

But this isn’t just happening in the big smoke.

26 year old Lexi (she/her) is a student in the midlands, who created a final piece criticising the policing system, and the hierarchy of law and order overall.

“I'm a fashion design student based out of the midlands currently in my final year. Last year we were tasked with creating a jacket based on a political movement of our choice. I went with ACAB and created a graffiti inspired open front jacket with a custom collar and some hand drawn text on the back. Almost all of the print work was achieved by screen printing with an opaque binder which gave the print some textures as it sits just on top of the fabric. The main body was a cotton tweed and the collar was made from a heavy corduroy.

It can be a rather complex and heavy topic to discuss with people due to it's woven intricacies, as such I wanted to make a piece that was both immediately obtuse, but also hiding intricate messaging. Each piece of graffiti inspired print conveys a different critique of the system whether it's the inherent racism, queerphobia and xenophobia, the 40% domestic abuse statistic, the growing surveillance, etc.

In truth I was rather worried when it came to presenting my work to peers and tutors as it can be quite a divisive subject and my intent was never to upset but to spark conversation and learning. Luckily everyone I showed my work to loved it! I think the fact that you have to take in the piece to truly understand what it's saying helps make people spend time considering the message rather than instantly creating a visceral reaction.”

Tyra (She/her) is a student from Sweden, whose project focused on the difficulties and ostracising that affect people of lower income within the fashion industry.

“Economic shame can come with being a student, where even if you take out student loans you’d need a job at the same time as being a full time student. Politicians are prioritising lowering their own taxes, and people are not affording to eat let alone live comfortably. When I first told one of my teachers about my project his reaction was that I’ve chosen a first world problem, this comment made me burn even more - yes it is a privilege to live in a country where I am able to study and pursue a degree I’m passionate about, but it should still not come at a cost where students should have to choose between food or rent that month.

When presenting I’m always nervous about what others might thing, because all I can see when looking at it is things I should’ve done differently, but it is also exciting to see their reactions on how a concept I’ve just talked about becomes reality. My teacher even told me after I was done presenting that she thought the pictures were just my inspiration and that she was wondering when I was actually going to show the product!”

Students Stand Up

DEFINING FASHION: Patterns