The UWE Graduate Fashion Weekend, held at the Trinity Centre in Bristol on 11 – 12 May, was organised by The FashionSays Stitched programme of third Year Fashion students. There were a variety of different, inspiring collections, which boasted amazing fabrics, colours and textures – from lace to knitwear.

Stunning birdwing head pieces, bright colour blocking dresses and detailed corsetry highlighted the two-hour show. The quality of the garments was impeccably presented, sewn with such careful consideration and touched up all day by students who worked hard behind the scenes to replace buttons and zips before each of the shows. The models stood tall and professional in long beautiful chiffon garments, backless silk floor length dresses, tweed jackets styled with knitted scarves and a selection of wedge shoes, Jeffrey Campbell inspired platforms in various colours and casual men’s leather boots.

A few lucky students have grabbed the attention of some of the public and have had garments already wanted for buying, starting off a prosperous design career. After one long year of planning and organisation the students at the University of the West of England were happy to say that the 2012 Fashion degree show was a complete and utter stitched up success!

Words and photos: Megan Price-Roberts

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Revolver have enticed My Vintage Affair and their fabulous collection of antique fashion finds from around the world to pack up their trunks and head to Newquay for the weekend. With 100′s of items of womenswear on offer, spanning the 1940′s through to the 1980′s, this pop-up shop will be an essential event for vintage lovers all over the county.

Created by air hostess and stylist Joanna Gibbs from her passion for the style and workmanship of bygone days, My Vintage Affair has become reknown all over the country for their unique and impressive clothing collections which have been personally sourced and hand-picked from Joanna’s travels around the globe. Joanna also offers a vintage wedding dress sourcing service.

“This is a perfect opportunity for our customers to get their hands on some really special vintage fashion in the store and for new friends to come and see what we are all about at Revolver. This pop-up department to our shop complements what we are doing with our blend of vintage and new clothing, boards, surf and skate photography prints, vinyl and home pieces. We look forward to welcoming lots of new faces and making friends over the weekend” Gee Piper, Revolver Surf Emporium.

My Vintage Affair will be popping up at Revolver in Newquay on Saturday May 5 and Sunday May 6 from 10am – 5pm. 76 Fore Street, Newquay. Tel: 01637 818 301 for more details. Prices start from £10.

Following the huge success and enthusiastic turn-out at Finisterre’s first pop-up shop in Polzeath – the first leg of the tour – the team have now announced 2 more dates where friends and fans of this eco-friendly brand can come and meet the team, find out more about the technical clothing and what makes it so special all whilst picking up some amazing bargains. From online to onland, this tour is the first time that Finisterre have gone on the road and is the perfect opportunity to check-out and try the ranges of men’s and women’s clothing up close and personal.

The next event sees the opening up of their very own workshop at Finisterre HQ in Wheal Kitty, St Agnes on Saturday 31 March from 10am to 5pm. Following this, the friendly Finisterre team will be heading North to Braunton in Devon on Friday 6th and Saturday 7 April from 10am to 5pm at The Youth Centre. This will be an extra special event as it coincides and celebrates the opening of the Museum of British Surfing in Braunton, which Finisterre are enthusiatically supporting.

At the events there will be great discounts on their celebrated Merino base layers, insulated jackets, waterproofs, fleeces, sweats and hoodies with prices starting from just £5. This big Blow Out Sale will also include exclusive end of line and sample clearance offers – so a last chance to buy on selected styles.

From a one-man set-up in an attic in St Agnes to an award-winning and globally respected company, Finisterre’s reputation for quality, fabric innovation and earth-friendly ethos for their technical outdoor clothes has led to their garments being championed by world-class surfers through to intrepid explorers.

“We’re lucky to have built up some pretty loyal supporters over the years, and so the idea behind our Grand Workshop Tour was for us to get out there, meet our customers and hopefully make some new friends along the way – grow the Finisterre family. We had a great day at our first ever pop-up event at Polzeath where we put a lot of faces to names, and felt flattered to meet folk who were so interested in Finisterre and what we are doing. We’re looking forward to the Aggie and the Braunton events” Tom Kay, Founder of Finisterre.

For more details visit www.finisterreuk.com or call 01872 554 481

A fabulous dress and matching accessories have been designed and assembled by talented young students Billie Cox, Alice Smyth, Jessica Dyer and Hazel Symons who are all in the first year of their BTEC Extended Diploma in Fashion and Textiles at the College. The students’ colourful and flamboyant outfit, made using Burts Chips packets, will be unveiled to the public at Exeter Racecourse this week.

The entire outfit will next be paraded in all its glory on Ladies’ Day at the Cheltenham Festival from 13 to 16 March. This outing will provide tremendous exposure for the budding fashion designers, whose vibrant Burts Chips dress is sure to make a statement amongst the sophisticated and glamorous attire typically worn for a day at the races. There are even plans to enter the dress in the Festival’s famous best dressed lady competition on the Wednesday of the four day meeting, where it will go up against fierce competition from some of the most stylish ladies in racing.

Course leader Julia Stean said: “The College is very proud of the girls’ achievements and we can’t wait to show off our innovative creations. It’s wonderful that we can showcase a much loved local Plymouth based company and celebrate one of the country’s greatest sporting events while showing off our students’ talents. It has been great fun and something really different for the students to get their teeth into; it really has been a fantastic experience for them. We’ve certainly enjoyed grazing on a lot of delicious crisps along the way too!”

Burts Chips is involved in a sponsorship deal with Jockey Club Racecourses which enables its crisps to be sold at its 14 racecourses, which include Cheltenham. Marketing director Leane Bramhall said: “We are so impressed with the dress and it’s incredible how the students have made the jacket to resemble tweed. It’s been a great initiative and we’ve really enjoyed our involvement with the college. We’re looking forward to taking the dress to the Cheltenham Festival now and seeing what the crowds think of our crisp packet-adorned model!”

No Regrets, run by Cheltenham boy Ben Lakin and business partner Alex Brown, increased its floor space from 1,300 to 2,000 square feet during the ambitious refit. With a team of five artists, the owners are keen to make Cheltenham an alternative capital of tattooing in the UK. One of the studio’s artists, Alec – known in the industry as Phatt German – walked away from the recent national Tattoo Freeze convention with the Best Large Colour title, the latest in a list of 40 awards scooped by the shop since it opened three-and-a-half years ago. Meanwhile, resident piercer Ash specialises in the latest micro-dermal piercing techniques, and recently branched out into branding – sparking a feature in next month’s Bizarre magazine.

The new-look studio has a relaxed atmosphere, with walls adorned with contemporary art. Alec has welcomed clients from as far afield as Sweden and Germany into his chair, and customers regularly travel from all over England to have work done by realism specialist MeeHow. He said: “We wanted to look at the industry from a new perspective – it’s about the interaction of the artist and customer and we wanted to move away from the intimidating style of traditional shops to a relaxed atmosphere, welcoming to hard core ink fans and first timers alike.”

Ben and Alex, who met while studying economics and marketing together at the University of the West of England in Bristol, opened the Cheltenham studio in 2008, and launched a second branch in Gloucester a year later. They plan to further expand across the south of the country, with a third shop set to open later this year. They have also launched a supplies section, enabling them to sell equipment and products to other registered studios across the UK, while a range of No Regrets merchandise is being produced, supporting local businesses and independent designers. Cosmetic beauty treatments, including laser hair removal and semi-permanent make-up, are also set to be introduced this year.

More info at www.noregretsstudios.co.uk

A spokesman for Volcom said: “Give Jeans a chance is a part of Volcom’s Give Back Series, where we aim to raise both awareness and funds or products for people-based causes in select communities. In it’s 3rd consecutive year, the Give Jeans a Chance program is in partnership with the National Coalition for the Homeless and raises awareness around homelessness and collects jeans for those in the homeless community. Each year, we have expanded the program and each year, we have raised our expectations. With the help of partnering retailers, community leaders, and our global Volcom family, we are expecting to collect 50,000 pairs of jeans, worldwide for the 2011-12 campaign.”

More information at www.volcom.com/givejeansachance

Charlotte James, a third year fashion student at University of the West of England, was crowned the most stylish student in MyStreetChic.com’s freshers’ week style off. Users of the Bristol based fashion website voted for their favourite looks by hitting the ‘like’ button against the outfit they preferred. Charlotte won with 86 votes, while her nearest rival, Natalie Macpherson (also a UWE student) walked away with 82 votes. In total, UWE scored 215 votes, whereas Bristol University scored just 72 altogether. “I’m so excited to have won! It just goes to show that you don’t have to spend a fortune to look good – most of my clothes come from my mother’s wardrobe which she kept from when she was younger. I love vintage fashion and take my style inspiration from nineties looks, my friends and my travels,” said Charlotte.

Hannah Wood, a student fashion ambassador for MyStreetChic.com said: “When MyStreetChic.com set me this mission to spot the best street style at my university, I knew I was onto a winner. Students at UWE are very fashionable, so I was in no doubt that we’d take the title! I approached Charlotte because of her unique style, and I’m so happy for her that she’s won. When we launched the competition, we knew there had always been a friendly rivalry between the two universities, but we had no idea how competitive it would get! After a lot of campaigning and debating on Twitter and Facebook, the votes are in and it seems that our users think UWE is the most stylish university in town!” commented Gina Dyer, Editor of MyStreetChic.com.

As winner of the freshers’ week style off, Charlotte gets £50 to spend at Merc Clothing, as well as an exclusive MyStreetChic.com beauty goodie bag.

And now, online lifestyle store Surfdome.com and Rapanui have teamed up to offer you a money-can’t-buy opportunity: to be a designer for an award-winning fashion brand. So get your creative head on and come up with a design for a Rapanui t-shirt. The winning design will be printed by Rapanui, and will be sold at www.surfdome.com . You’ll also get five of your t-shirts for you and your mates. To top off the prize bundle, you’ll get £50 worth of vouchers to spend at Rapanui and £50 worth of vouchers to spend at www.surfdome.com ! To enter the competition ‘Like’ both Rapanui and Surfdome’s Facebook pages and then upload your design here: http://www.rapanuiclothing.com/surfdome-form.php. Competition closes on 6th November 2011.

Check out Rapanui’s current collection of organic cotton and bamboo tees here at Surfdome.com: http://www.surfdome.com/Rapanui~654

In store, the ‘Say Fromage‘ photobooth lets you capture your holiday memories, and upload them straight to facebook, to be the envy of your friends. The ever growing wall behind the booth is collecting a legacy of visitors over the summer.

Also featured in the Nike 6.0 ‘Boardshort Bar’ is the surf wax inspired game. At just £2 a go, a leaver is pulled allowing the wax to drop through pegs revealing a ticket on the back, some are winners, some are not – the fun is in the gamble. All proceeds from the game are supporting the Newquay based ‘Joe Way’ charity.

Matt Way – Joe’s Dad and founder of the charity said: “What a great idea and a fun way to raise money, the slick design and practical way the machine works makes this a real winner. Charity’s are having to work hard with new and innovative ideas and this has come in at the top of list for us, we are very grateful to be associated and benefiting from this great concept”.

The store is open until the 27th August at Bank Street, Newquay.

Words: Boex Design
Photos: Kirstin Prisk