Fashionista Magazine

Graduate Fashion Week (GFW) featured the absolute cream of talent in this country as Universities around the UK displayed the work of their finest students. In it's 18th year, GFW is where companies, talent scouts, trend spotters and fashionistas go to check out the up and coming talent. I saw shows by Nottingham Trent, UCA Rochester, UCA Epsom and Manchester Metropolitan University and the collections I saw were pretty much on par with those at London Fashion Week. My favourite part of GFW is wandering round the exhibition and checking out the portfolios, sketchbooks and publications created by the students. There is some amazing work displayed here and more importantly you get an idea of the thought process of the student when they were working on their collection. Wednesday saw the galas take place where Claudia Schiffer, Matthew Williamson, Dylan Jones and Lorraine Candy presented awards to the most promising students. Myrto Stamou from UCA Rochester took home the Gold Award as well as the award for Womenswear. Thursday was the last day and it was Education Day where students who are looking to break into the industry could pick up information about fashion courses and careers. There was also a careers clinic which was hosted by the so cool it hurts, Caryn Franklin with a panel which consisted of established people from the fashion biz; where they answered questions about how to get into the industry. I said hi to Susie Bubble who was blogging away at her stand and I bumped into Disney RollerGirl in the press office.

I picked up a copy of Fashionista which is the official magazine published for GFW and packed with lots of information about getting into the industry. When I was starting out in my career all that was on offer were a few leaflets, there were no magazines let alone a cool and stylish one like Fashionista. The magazine is written by fashion students from UCA Rochester and edited by Hannah Kane and put together by Piers Atkinson, hat maker and editor from Disorder and Dennis Maloney. This gem of a publication features an interview with current darling, Hannah Marshall, a look behind the scenes at Elle, diaries by interns at magazines such as Bliss and Absolute Brighton, Sunday Times Style magazine and TheFashionScout.com. All the tips that are needed for getting into the fashion business are presented in a really cool way that is accessible as well as fun. Information and entertainment mixed together.