Graduate Fashion Week 2006

Welcome to fuk@GFW 2006

This year, GFW, which started life in the minds of Jeff Banks and Caryn Franklin, celebrates 15 years and what an amazing event it has evolved into. Over 40 colleges from across the UK participated in the four-day event which officially kicked off in Battersea Park on Sunday June 4. However, because this year, the London College of Fashion celebrates its 100th anniversary, the college wanted to host a 'special' event and opted not to show at Battersea and instead hosted three shows in a single day at The Royal Academy in W1.

The set-up was spot on. There were a few technical hitches here and there - the power cut out a few times which made life backstage difficult on a couple of occasions - but the custom-built complex was again excellent. The space was huge and there was a decent amount of air conditioning, but the two show theatres did get hot, so the River Island Ice Garden - a haven with white deck chairs, mock snow and penguins was well appreciated. The press office (take note London Fashion Week organisers) was kitted out with laptops, air conditioning and essential nibbly food offerings which were delicious and, more importanty, kept photographers nourished. Nice one.

Highlights for us included meeting so many wonderful people like Natasha and Amy from Northampton whose enthusiasm is infectious, Lydia Doughty from Ravensbourne and everyone we met from Bournemouth! (You can see video interviews with some of the graduates here.) Fav collections for us are London College of Fashion and Northumbria.

Congratulations to the winners - James Lawrence from Northumbria University scooped the £20,000 River Island Gold Award and to Liam Jackson of Manchester Metropolitan University and Ravensbourne's Masa Hata who both won Highly Commended Awards. Abbie Storey from Winchester School of Art won the knitwear award and Emma Mudford from Northampton was awarded the Zandra Rhodes Textile Award.

(Use the list below (or to the left) to see individual shows - the last few shows for which we have images will be appearing here this week - 14.06.06)