An outfit inspired by Coco Chanel has earned a Fashion Design graduate from De Montfort University Leicester (DMU) a coveted spot on a New York catwalk this Saturday.
Francesca's award-winning, Chanel-inspired outfit
The exclusive opportunity to show off her designs to an audience of style-leaders, fashionistas and the media, is Francesca Phipp’s prize for winning the Fashion Designers’ and Craft Makers’ (FDC) Young Designer Award.
The FDC awards are an international platform for dynamic young fashion designers to showcase their niche. This year’s competition was judged on designing an outfit inspired by the fashion and times of the 1920s to 1939.
Francesca chose to explore the timeless styles of Coco Chanel, saying: “It was a very interesting process for me because I was researching an era of fashion that I’ve never really looked into before.
“It paid off though and the judges said they picked my work as it was different to everyone else’s, as well as being very current and trendy.”
Francesca is one of 20 international fashion designers lined-up for the ‘electrifying’ catwalk, and as well as her Chanel-inspired outfit, her 13-piece collection includes her DMU graduate designs which play with the notion of drapery and organic silhouettes.
One of Francesca's DMU graduate designs
The 22-year-old said: “I’m fascinated by draping so for my final major project I wanted to carry on experimenting with different fabrics and seeing how the body also manipulates the fabrics with its shape and movement.”
Rounding up her FDC collection are outfits which she entered into, and came second in, the 2015 Fashion Awareness Direct (FAD) competition, a charity supporting young people to bridge the gap between education and the fashion industry.
Francesca impressed the judges with her intricate dying technique on denim, which recreated colour spectrums seen in soundwaves to produce an edgy streetwear collection.
Since graduating from DMU in 2015, Francesca has been working at ON Motcomb in London, a couture evening-wear boutique, stocking gowns from world-famous designers such as Marchesa, Zac Posen, Giambattisa Vali and Monse.
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A design entered into the FAD competition by Francesca
Francesca said: “DMU really has helped me as a person and as a designer to develop and have the successes that I have. I was always pushed to my best at university.”
One of the opportunities that ‘pushed’ Francesca to be her best at DMU was winning the Hay Festival competition in Wales by creating a sustainable outfit in collaboration with long-time ethical campaigner and designer, Katharine Hamnett.
Francesca was also selected to take part in the first ever fashion show on the Eiffel Tower, enjoyed a summer at a Hong Kong tailoring school as part of #DMUglobal, and landed internships with British fashion designer Tessa Edwards and British fashion house, Hanger Inc.
Posted on Thursday 21 April 2016