Wednesday Gala Report

Two Gala performances were held this year. At the earlier 5.30pm show, students were give the chance to see the 16 collections nominated for Awards, but no winners were announced. The 8pm show was packed with head-hunters, industry insiders and press. It was also hosted by Caryn Franklin who told us of felt great pride and joy she feels at being part of this event "which is one of a kind featuring graduates only." During the evening, Caryn couldn't help but share her genuine enthusiasm, "I get such a buzz from the energy and excitement of the students." She also explained how the winners of the Gold Award get access to the GFW mentoring panel by phone and email for two years after winning their Award.

Despite not showing its fashion design collections at Graduate Fashion Week, the London College of Fashion (which along with Central Saint Martins and Kingston choose to show separately) scooped two awards, best stand and National Magazine's First Word journalism Award which went to Olivia Bergin. UCCA Epsom's Zoe Jeske won the Media and Design Award which was presented by a very glamorous June Sarpong MBE (interviewed by us on Tuesday).

There were 16 collections shown. We were surprised that no-one from Nottingham Trent reached the final selection for knitwear. Visionary Knitwear went to Lilli Rose Wicks from Somerset, Zandra Rhodes' Catwalk Textile Award went to Jessica Clarke from Manchester Metropolitan University. Kelly Shaw from the University of East London was awarded Golden Award runner-up with her solid London collection featuring ASBO sashes.

We knew that this year River Island was going to reward both a menswear and a womenswear collection as it had been stated in the press release - but there was a weird twist of fate here. When all the finalists met with the Gold Award judges (who are Glenda Bailey, Richard Bradbury from sponsor River Island, Alber Elbaz from Lanvin and Victoria Beckham) on Wednesday morning, Jasper Chadprajong from Ravensbourne found his menswear collection was too small for the male models. He told us that one model had even split a pair of trousers at the fitting stage - so a drastic rethink was needed. Encouraged by Alber Elbaz , Jasper reworked his clothes on women and what had been a menswear collection shown on the catwalk on Tuesday, was transformed into womenswear for the Gala.

Jasper Chadprajong and Nicolas Thomas shared the Gold Award

This versatility should stand Jasper in good stead. He along with Nicolas Thomas of UWE Bristol shared the Gold Award - Nicolas for menswear, Jasper for womenswear. Each received a cheque for £10,000 and Jasper kindly showed us his and told us that he is going to use the money to pay for his MA in Menswear at the RCA. When we spoke to Caryn Franklin she told us how the judges had helped the designers style and present their collections. Apparently, at one point Alber looked at a collection, announced it needed boots and handed someone money to head off and buy them! The man has a 10,000 watt presence when he took to the stage to present the award, we bathed in his charisma. Let's hope they ask him back next year because by all reports, he's a fantastic judge.

Kelly Shaw told us that she was tempted to go off on holiday but promised she would spend the prize money on furthering her education instead - her most pressing concern though was getting her mum into the after-show party - the poor lady was stuck outside and had been told she couldn't get it. We hope Mrs Shaw made it inside and had a fantastic time.