Students turn plastic into something fantastic

Plastic shopping bags are recognised worldwide as an environmental hazard, but fashion students at Waltham Forest College have found a fascinating way to recycle them.

They have turned the throwaway items into fantastic dresses and gowns in a design project based on recyclable materials.

The bags were ironed, steamed, knitted, stapled, pinned, sewn and crunched into shape to make a collection of stunning creations, some outrageous and others the brave might dare to wear.

“I laughed when we were given this project,” student Sahra Moalim said. “I first thought, making dresses out of plastic bags, no way. But I was wrong.

“I learned that you can make anything glamorous and different. It works if you try hard to think of the design and forget about the material you are working with.”

Sahra, 20, is in her second year of a two year course leading to a BTEC National Diploma in fashion, a qualification equivalent to three A Levels, and plans to study design at university.

Her team used a variety of techniques, including adding sequins, to create a yellow and black gown from Morrisons bags.

Fashion tutor Melanie Boraster said students were split into teams of three, each consisting of a first year, a second year, and a fashion pathway student, to produce a garment.

“We visited the Fashion and Textile Museum and the Tate Modern to get ideas and inspiration for their designs,” she said.

Annie Sophocleous, 18, said: “I was inspired by the exhibition of corsets at the Fashion and Textiles Museum. I chose to knit a waist band with Morrisons plastic bags to get a tight waist effect with a puffy, girly-look skirt.”

Grace Crathern, 17, said it was her uncle who is a window dresser in Paris who inspired her to choose a career in fashion. She said: “My group really loved the bright yellow colour of the Budgens plastic bags. It was seeing a picture of a bra in a museum's leaflet that gave me the idea for the design of this dress.”

Mature student Femida Mahmood said her team’s design made from Waitrose bags was inspired by a 19th century “umbrella dress” seen at the fashion museum. The 53-year-old said: “I have five children aged between 10 and 19 and have a workshop at home where I make clothes for all the family and our friends.”

Radna Jassin admitted that she regarded her team’s design made from Asda bags more as “a piece of art” rather than a wearable outfit. “It’s punky and funky and you might get away with it around Camden Town,” she added.

However Niya Mignott said his team had deliberately set out to produce a wearable creation using Sainsbury’s bags. “We had a discussion and decided we wanted to design something that somebody might want to wear to a club.

“This project has taught me how to be creative, work as a team, how to use different ideas, and also how to compromise.”

Sarah Yombo said her team drew on the 1970s for inspiration for her beachwear outfit of knitted bra and matching skirt. “I had just been taught how to knit so I thought of incorporating knitting into the design,” she explained.

The conical bra worn by Madonna was the inspiration behind the outfit which featured a multi-coned bra designed by Luqman Ali’s team. He said: “You can do a lot of things with plastic that you can’t do with other fabrics, like burning it to make it tighter and crunchier.”

Shumaila Aslam said her team’s red, white and blue creation made from Tesco bags was designed to resemble a 19th century promenade dress with elaborate hat that elegant ladies might wear on their walks in the park. “We ironed and cut and steamed the bags and painted some of them to create the effect,” she added.

Saidah Kitimbo wants to continue her studies at the London School of Fashion when she completes her BTEC course and believes the skills she learned on the project will help her get there. “It was a fun to experiment and it proved that you can make anything out of plastic bags by using different techniques.”

The College runs a range of fashion courses to suit people at all levels. The majority of students progress to university or straight into employment, following the successful completion of their courses. For information about courses available at Waltham Forest College please phone 020 8501 8501, email info@waltham.ac.uk

Students showcase sartorial talent

(The following piece appeared in the Waltham Forest Guardian, Tuesday 30th June 2009)

WALTHAM Forest College was given a taste of the catwalk as fashion students staged their end-of-year show.

Flounces, frills and old socks all made appearances as models strutted their stuff on the runway on June 25.

With inspirations as diverse as Country Life magazine and the African savannah, the show ran the sartorial gamut, from street chic to evening wear.

In the “Make Do and Mend” category, first year fashion students stitched together old socks to create a range of shift dresses.

They also drew inspiration from TV series The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, based on the novel by Alexander McCall Smith. The result was a collection of multi-coloured leather waistcoats, worn over blouses, skirts and shorts in African-style prints.

Benita Odogwu-Atkinson, the college’s curriculum manager for fashion, textiles and media, said: “Each year we look at different cultures for our inspiration and this year I wanted to focus on the British culture. We aimed to produce the Burberry look, with a collection of outfits in tweed and woollen fabrics.”

Models from the I Feel Experience agency showed off the students' work, as well as friends, family, other students, and in some cases, the designers themselves.

First-year BTEC student Luqman Ali, 17, said he spent 12 hours making a dress from old socks.
“I have always had a passion for clothes,” he said. "When I was younger I used to watch my mother sew and it stemmed from that.”

Taking a two-year course in fashion and clothing, Luqman hopes to go to university to study design and plans to become a designer and model.

The show was staged at the college in Forest Road, Walthamstow on June 25, featuring from students from a variety of courses.

Entwined in Fashion

Waltham Forest College was last but not least at the Alternative Fashion Show in London's Spitalfields Market.

As the very last exhibitors we tried to give those who were braving the freezing cold winds a show to remember.

This is Katie just one of the ten models showing off the 'Entwined' collection created by the BTEC National Diploma fashion students.

Anyway, when we first got there we were put through our paces and at first were terrified (erm, as you can see below) but it all worked out brilliantly in the end.

Students were given a basic foundation shape from which they were asked to be as creative as possible.

The entwining of various metallic coloured fabrics resulted in visually beautiful evening dresses capturing varying shades of gold and silver, as you can see.

Phew!

The Show of Shows

Looking back to last year (again), we've managed to dig up yet more video clips to share!

Throughout 2006 the college put on a number of different shows in the main hall and the Performance Arts studio.

The Alternative Fashion Show, the Hair and Beauty Show, the main Fashion Show, and the end of year show from the Performance Arts students all showed off the abilities of students. Those abilities ranged from singing, through dancing, walking the catwalk, to arranging the hair, designing and making the clothes, and dressing the models, as well as working behind the scenes.

The video clips we've dug up were recently played on the college stand at the Clothes Show Live showing passers by the full range of activities in the college. Let us know what you think by adding your comments at the end of this article.

Now, click play and turn up the volume!:

The height of fashion

It was a very early morning start for students on the Fashion Pathway course on Wednesday.

They boarded a coach outside of the college for a day trip up the M1 to the NEC Birmingham and the finale of the Clothes Show Live.

The main show consisted of a huge catwalk with a dramatic and highly choreographed show that included showing off the By Caprice range.

There was a smaller area displaying some of the other collections. Saidah took these pictures of a couple of her favourites (above) and reported that she "Totally enjoyed the collections shown on the catwalk."


Apparently the catwalk shows were second only to the free goodies as the best part of the day.

Searching around the designs and dress display forms, Rebekha found these dresses and corset the most appealing.




When asked to sum up the day she said, "I thought it was really wonderful you know. I'm really glad that the college brought me here!"

Both say they will definitely be returning to next year's Clothes Show Live and feel a need to get really creative.

A fashion statement

If you are a fashion student, you can't have helped notice that this year's Clothes Show Live is in full swing until Wednesday at Birmingham's NEC.

The college is represented by a stand that can be found in the 'blue zone' (whatever that is!), proudly showing off some of the excellent work of students from our college.

Visitors get an opportunity to learn more about our college and the courses available, including a chance to watch a fast moving film collage of some of this year's fashion shows that students from the college put on or were involved in.

On display is some of the striking and intricate work that featured in the shows, demonstrating the brilliant results of the hard work and long hours put in by the WFC fashion students.