FOLLOWING the cancellation of Graduate Fashion Week because of current government guidelines, the Graduate Fashion Foundation looks to different ways to champion their talents. Supporting 14 universities world-wide, the charity highlights the top talent on their website celebrating diverse groups of emerging creatives. Through a new tab added to their website, GFF will showcase BAME Talents commemorating current and former students from their member universities – supporting the next generation of fashion designers, writers, photographers, stylists and more.
Below, Glass presents four of Graduate Fashion Weeks’ selected BAME talents who bring fresh and unique perspectives to their work, using their personal and cultural heritage to tell exciting, important and underrepresented stories through fashion.
- Vimbai Mbanje from Birmingham City University
Vimbai Mbanje is a fashion communication graduate from Birmingham City University. During her final year, Mbanie created a publication called Sonke, which translates to “together, all of us, as one,” from her native language Ndebele.
Split into a collection of 3 zines, Sonke Hair, Sonke Home, and Big Issue, alongside a video that features “black women voicing what it means to be a black female as well as the voices of mothers in the black community,” the publication spreads awareness of the everyday experiences of Black people and aims to bring all women of colour together.
Read GFF’s interview with Vimbai Mbanje here.
Sonke by Vimbai Mbanje
Sonke by Vimbai Mbanje
Sonke by Vimbai Mbanje
- Simran Kanda from Leeds Arts University
“I am very passionate about bringing more people of colour into this fashion industry and to make sure they have a voice and get the same opportunities as everyone else,” says freelance fashion stylist and photographer Simran Kanda during her interview with GFF. Her work often focuses on her heritage as a Punjabi woman and since graduating from Leeds Arts University, she has worked at London Fashion Week seeking to open up the fashion industry to a more diverse array of people.
Read more of Simran Kanda’s interview with GFF here.
Simran Kanda Photography
Simran Kanda Photography
Simran Kanda Photography
- Melody Uyanga Ramsay from Glasgow School of Art
Melody Uyanga Ramsay is a fashion design graduate from Glasgow School of Art who’s artwork re-contextualises traditional clothing of “colonisers” being worn by people of colour to subvert historical stereotypes.
Influenced by her own experiences, from growing up as one of the only people of colour in a small Scottish town, Ramsay’s work looks to antiquated codes of dress and challenges the inhabited identity; “I question how I could subvert socially normative expectations of ‘high’ fashion,” she says. Currently working as an Artist in Residence, she is building her portfolio to earn the desired place on a design team.
To find out more, read Melody Uyanga Ramsay’s GFF interview here.
Melody Uyanga Ramsay’s work
Melody Uyanga Ramsay’s work
Melody Uyanga Ramsay’s work
- Abdul Nasim from Heriot-Watt University
The idea of Abdul Nasim’s, a Fashion Communications graduate of Heriot-Watt University, the final project was conceived while he was getting his hair cut by talking to his barber about their different cultural heritages and how they are perceived by the younger generations (himself included). Through his A3 Fashion Publication, Nasim explores his Pakistani background with an aim to understand how young British people with dual nationality heritage navigate their cultural identity. He blends an assortment of fashion photography, graphics, collage and typography to communicate his ideas.
Read more about Abdul Nasim’s work here.
Abdul Nassim’s work: Kebab Mahal
Abdul Nassim’s work
Abdul Nassim’s work
Find out more on the Graduate Fashion Foundation’s website.
by Molly Denton