Graduate Fashion Week - Caryn Franklin

13 May 2007

Clothes Show Star Caryn Franklin and Richard Bradbury Talk Autumn/Winter Fashion For 2007

Do you dream of becoming the next Stella McCartney or Matthew Williamson? Fancy following in the footsteps of Welsh wonder Julien MacDonald down the catwalk?

Then go and visit Graduate Fashion Week (June 3rd - 6th) - it’s apparently the perfect way to show your own desire and talents whilst also celebrating the work of more than 1,000 of the finest fashion students from around the UK.

Caryn Franklin, TV Presenter and fashion expert, and Richard Bradbury, Managing Director of River Island joined FemaleFirst this week to reveal the juicy details of what we can expect from this event. Find out what they had to say below:

Why is Graduate Fashion Week especially so important for the industry

Richard - Well it’s the one chance for somebody to come along and see exactly what happens in the fashion industry. It’s a great chance for graduates to be seen because there are lots of recruiters at the show from the big design houses and the recruitment consultants. They can come along and they can talk to people at River Island and understand what kind of jobs exist because the fashion industry is not just about designing clothes, it’s about great marketing, great journalism, great PR, great buying, great visual work in store and about having great looking shops. So there’s a huge requirement for a totally creative reproach and the 48 universities and colleges that are there - it’s a showcase for them.

Also, if you’ve got a son or a daughter who’s interested in the industry, you can come to one place, you can see all of the different industries, and you can talk to them and see what’s a good fit. You can find out about it and for the people who are exhibiting - there are many people who will get their collections seen at this particular event, who would otherwise not get any of the top head hunters or recruitment managers from the top designers visiting their local university so it’s really important for them.

What should be looked out for at this year’s graduate event

Caryn - Well not really trends. We’re looking for graduates and students to marry their technical excellence with their creative vision. This is the space for them to create something that really shows the industry what they are about. This is a space where there are no commercial restraints remember actually. Once they get in the industry there will be all kinds of things for them to consider. There are plenty of judges and a whole load of awards.

Zandra Rhodes, for instance will be presiding over a print award and she will be looking for somebody who’s going to making a contribution and lead the way. It’s about having something to add to the print industry. We’ll certainly be looking out for a student who is deserved of the River Island Gold Award. It’s a fantastic prize -£20,000, this is a very real monetary prize that will make a massive difference to this student’s life. It maybe could help them clear a bit of debt, perhaps help them go on with further education or even start up a business. So there are a lot of different aspects really to Graduate Fashion Week!

The British are a nation of individuals - we’re on this little island and we want to make a big noise. We have this creativity and we enjoy our individuality. You can see that in the music industry, the arts and certainly in the fashion industry. We just have a unique perspective on life and I think our industry certainly attracts graduates and young people. It’s about expression and saying something. We are part of a culture that is all about freedom of expression - we are very visual people and certainly we export that creativity around the world. If you go to any design studio there will be British trained people. 50% of Giorgio Armani’s staff are British trained, the Chloe design team - 70% British trained. I think that says everything about what we export.

Richard - If you look at the Street - the Street is a massive influence on fashion in the UK and in many other places it doesn’t happen that way. But people over here are allowed to choose their own path and they’re comfortable making individual statements.

There are a lot of serious issues concerning the fashion world after size zero, for instance ethical fashion, sustainable clothing and fair trade. Do you think the industry is doing enough to tackle the "green" problem

Caryn - Well, I think it’s something that everybody in the industry has to be accountable to and get involved with. We have to look at how we can address the situation really. It is the future of fashion - discerning shoppers are asking questions. Nobody really wants to buy garments where they feel that say, child labour has been involved or that people have suffered and are not getting a living wage. Fashion is all about feel good and certainly to marry the two where you can feel good and you can feel that you’ve made a contribution - that you’ve paid a rightful price for something is crucial.

Caryn, you’re now appearing in the revamped Clothes Show series on UK TV Style with Louise Rednapp and Brendan Courtney. What’s it like being the only original cast member of this special programme now?

Caryn - Well it’s interesting because I thought about not doing it because I thought: "Can You Go Back?" The Clothes Show in its day, because it’s twenty years ago when it started, was a massive influence to everybody’s understanding of fashion. I felt "Could I Do That As Well?" I actually thought when I first started in the industry - I really thought I could change the world. I was a purist, but now I realise that we all have the do the best that we can and make contributions in the way that we can. Here was an outlet for me really to have a space to be analytical about the fashion industry. There isn’t much space - the media generally isn’t that analytical. I’m doing it from a perspective of knowledge and one of passion. That’s why I’m doing it now, I love fashion - it’s a lovely, very glamorous industry to work and there are certain things that I think we could change and look at.

You both do a lot of charity work, for instance Caryn, you help with campaigns for breast cancer and eating disorder organisations. Would you consider becoming involved with anything else in the near future

Caryn - Well I think you can’t spread yourself too thinly, you’ve got to be able fundamentally be involved in something and know what’s involved and give your time accordingly. Rather than fix myself to a variety of causes, these are two things, which affect ladies in the fashion industry and the areas that I work in and are very much about women. I’m very proud of the way that the fashion industry has really risen to the challenge with "fashion targets" for Breast Cancer to raise millions of pounds to help build and maintain Britain’s first ever dedicated Breast Cancer Research Centre.

Richard - There’s also an opportunity at the event to actually meet some of the people from fashion targets Breast Cancer because they’ll be launching a great competition there. They’ll be talking to young girls about some of their worries too.

Caryn - Fantastic - even I didn’t know that!

Louise did the size zero weight loss experiment to highlight the matter. Would you ever be prepared to go through something as controversial as that to draw awareness to an issue

Caryn - I certainly was offered the opportunity to because there were quite a few documentaries made about that time but that just wasn’t for me. I would rather highlight it in a different way, l

What hot fashion trends can we expect for Autumn/Winter 2007 then

Caryn - Well we’ve just seen all of the high street collections - it’s still going on in fact and we had the shows back in February. What’s really coming through is fabric technology - the way in which designers can be inspired by fabric that has completely different properties so we’ve got fabrics still that have very much liquid metal abilities. The colour and dyes are still amazing quite a lot of cobbled blues. Lots of different textures - many designers chose to work in black, but black is just black. Because of the fabrics there’s patent fabrics, there’s soft buttery leather so that there are actually quite a lot of black in collections but it doesn’t look like it….

Richard - there’s a mixture…..

Caryn - I can vouch for the River Island rail - I was looking the other day at it. Because when a catwalk does a certain look, for a high street to interpret it they actually have to bring some creativity to that because years ago Marks and Spencer went down because everybody on the catwalk went for grey - but because they could put money really into the quality of the fabrics, grey wasn’t always grey. That was a lesson that the fashion industry learnt and now the consumer doesn’t just want something that’s come straight off the catwalk, they want that store’s interpretation. I think that’s something that River Island do well, they know who their customer is and she’s not a very thin woman. They’re marketing to ordinary women with realistic shapes - they don’t feel that they’re being fed a feminine ideal that’s unobtainable.

Richard - There are many more facets to fashion than just the catwalks. I say that all the time. We would not have a business if we just followed them. From the catwalks we just look to see what the directions are that fashion is heading in. Sometimes we have to say that’s really no good for our customer because they don’t want to be buying knee length pencil skirts and tight fitted jackets, they want something much more interesting.

Ladies seem to really struggle when choosing swimwear for the summer. What tips can you offer to those stressed out by the thought of showing off some skin

Caryn - Well I think there’s a lot of one-piece costumes out there at the moment which are a lot easier to wear in effect because you’re getting more coverage and certainly Michael Kors did a swim suit that has been every where and has influenced a lot of high street design. Whilst the bikini is great for getting a bit more sun to your skin, the swimsuit is always going to be more flattering. Most women enjoy having a little bit of help around their tummies so wearing something that does give you a slight girdle affect and an elegant look from beach to bar quite effortlessly with a sarong is definitely my best tip.

Caryn, you have two young daughters - you say you love the fashion industry, but would you be truly happy if they decided to follow in your footsteps one day

Caryn - Well I’ve funnily enough just been thinking about that - obviously I’m ideally placed to help them enter into the fashion world because of my contacts. Whereas if one of my daughters were to tell me she wanted to be a vet I would have no information to help her. I would love to think that I could be of a benefit to them in their future careers but they are individuals so I will have no influence in their choice of career. (She Laughs) I just hope they enjoy theirs as much as I’ve enjoyed mine.

The 2007 event will take place from Sunday June 3rd to Wednesday June 6th, including a static exhibition and 2 fashion theatres hosting 19 shows over the 4 days.

The final day features a 5.30pm show, which allows visitors to see all the student collections for the awards and an 8pm "invite only" glamorous Gala Fashion Show and Awards, which will feature the best 16 collections from the weeks shows and announce award winners.

If you fancy yourself as an innovative new fashion designer, illustrator, writer, textile or graphic designer in the future, please log on to www.gfw.org.uk or www.gfwlive.com for further information. For tickets call: 01903 885 748.

Clothes Show Star Caryn Franklin and Richard Bradbury Talk Autumn/Winter Fashion For 2007

Do you dream of becoming the next Stella McCartney or Matthew Williamson? Fancy following in the footsteps of Welsh wonder Julien MacDonald down the catwalk?