Regular readers will know just how fond I am of Stella McCartney and it's not hard to understand why. Whether it's with her own line or her work with Adidas and other ventures, she's one of the few designers concerned with giving something back and yesterday was a clear example of that.
As previously reported, yesterday the designer was awarded an Honorary Fellowship from the University of the Arts London but in accepting the award she announced that her eponymous label will fund a new scholarship program to benefit Fashion MA students studying at Central Saint Martins. 'To get into a college like this so hard for so many talented young people,' the designer began. 'For that reason, I am setting up this scholarship and I encourage other fortunate fashion houses to do the same.'
According to British Harper's Bazaar, the scheme will 'fund home, EU and international students on the MA Fashion course' and the 'first scholarships, worth £25,000, will be awarded this October, and will include a year of paid work experience at Stella McCartney.'
Regular readers will know how fond I am of Stella McCartney and her work and I'm not the only one. Yesterday University of the Arts confirmed that they will official honour the designer in recognition of her contribution to fashion.
McCartney, who graduated from Central Saint Martins back in 1995 with a BA degree in womenswear design, will receive an Honorary Fellowship at the college's graduation ceremony on July 18 where she will also address students; but she's not the only being honoured.
Fellow designer Lulu Guinness and illustrator David Downton will be awarded with Honorary Doctorates. 'I am extremely grateful to University of the Arts London for awarding me with this Honorary Doctorate,' Guinness said in a statement. 'I did not have any formal training in handbag design so this makes this extra special.'
Having been a long time fan and recent collaborator with Swarovski, I thought I knew the brand through and through. It's only recently when I was invited to attend this year's Central Saint Martins graduate show with their team that I realised just how little I knew. As well as sponsoring big events and working with leading designers, the brand is also committed to supporting emerging talent too and that's exactly what brought me to the show.
The college is known for producing tomorrow's leading designers and those that will really push the boundaries. For the select designers that manage to be included in the graduate show, a prestigious audience is a given. This year's event brought everyone from the International Herald Tribune's Suzy Menkes to Style.com's Tim Blanks.
Appearing in the line-up this year was Scarlett Tull, who was a recipient of the Swarovski Scholarship initiative along with Stephanie Bila. Unlike other graduate programs the Swarovski initiative, which launched last year, sponsors the chosen student's tuition fees. With the prices continually rising, the cost of university education is an ever present concern, one which LVMH bursary winner Tigran Avetisyan captured perfectly on his workwear pieces sporting slogans like 'NO JOBS' and 'graduate 2012 - nothing more to say.'
This month has been a busy one for Pringle of Scotland. This pre-fall season marked the first for the house under the direction of their new creative director Alistair Carr and to help celebrate, the collection has just dropped on Italian e-commerce website, The Corner, along with their own mini-store.
If you're still unfamiliar with The Corner, it's definitely worth checking out. The online shopping space has become so saturated over the last few years but the site, which is part of the successful Yoox Group, has managed to separate themselves from their competitors by giving customers access to the world of the given featured designer in their personalised virtual 'corners' on the site. Multimedia content like videos accompany designers' products in their customised 'mini-stores' and that's exactly what they've done with Pringle of Scotland with their two latest collections. Tilda Swinton, the long-time face of the brand, was brought on board to quizz Carr on the new resort collection, his design process and what it was like to take the reigns at such a much-loved heritage brand.
In the interview Carr explained that he will always respect the brand's heritage but it's important for him to also take it forward. In light of that, the brand's new collaboration with Central Saint Martins students make sense. Under the watchful eye of Louise Wilson, MA students were given the opportunity to go through the brand 196 year old archive collection to design a capsule collection of 12 pieces that served to reconnect the present with the brand's long history.
Everything on the creative side of fashion is instinctive. I know for certain when something’s good when I get a physical reaction to it — like goose bumps, a shout of laughter, even feeling a bit nauseous at the newness in front of you. That ‘sick’ reaction is what I had when I came across Christopher Kane at Central Saint Martins ... he was doing something so borderline vulgar with his neon-bandage collection, but I could see he was frighteningly talented.
Thus week we reported that Kanye West has brought Louise Goldin on board to help with his womenswear debut this September and on Friday Louise Wilson, course director of MA Fashion at CSM, confirmed the reports.
Talking to British Vogue she said:
"I have known Kanye for about two years," Wilson, the course director of the MA Fashion at CSM, told us. "He is very knowledgeable about fashion and interested - he is also interesting, he has an individual point of view. He has visited the college twice - most recently about employing interns to work on a variety of projects. He has supported the fashion school (with its fundraising regarding its move to Kings Cross) with a donation. I have not however been working closely with him on a collection but I certainly wish him well."
When it comes to rappers, I'd confidently say that nobody has had such an impact in the fashion world as Kanye West. When he's not sitting front row at shows from Alexander McQueen to Chanel, the rapper is working on his sneaker line with Nike as well as that infamous collaboration with Louis Vuitton. According to sources, West has decided to take his interest in fashion a step further.
Although reports alleging that he had applied for the MA design course Central Saint Martins were false, sources close to him told The Telegraph that West is setling in Paris where he will start working on his own line featuring both mens and womenswear. The decision to start a full-on brand is a big step for West, particularly since his Pastelle fashion line folded ack in 2009. "Did you not see the Lindsay {Lohan} and Ungaro collection?" he told ELLE. "That was 9/11 for celebrities doing fashion. After that I thought: 'Well I can't do a line now."
