Womenswear winner | GFW | Alexandra Fan

Womenswear winner | GFW | Alexandra Fan |

June 13, 2019 0 Comments

The winner of the Womenswear Award at Graduate Fashion Week went to Alexandra Fan, from the highly successful Edinburgh College of Art, which came away with a few winners. We had a quick chat with her to find out more about her and her winning collection at GFW.

1. Tell us about how Alexandra Fan got into fashion

My grandmother used to design and make a lot of garment at home – just as a hobby. So there is a sewing machine in her house, which is giant and old. I got to know quite a lot about it and made a lot of tiny dress for my dolls. When I was in high school, I read some magazines like Vogue and i-D quite a lot and really found my passion in fashion. I kept the habit of drawing at least one fashion illustration per week during the 3 years in my high school – which I needed to design first and draw on paper with colour pencil and watercolour. And of course, I chose fashion design as my major in the college.

2. How has your experience been like at ECA?

Our programmes were very intense since the 3rd year. So I buried myself in work during the last semesters. However the atmosphere at ECA was very friendly and free – as students were doing totally different things without the feeling of competition. Meanwhile, the brilliant faculty team were also very supportive of the students in all the different aspects to their fields.

3. You just had your collection shown at graduate fashion week, and
you won best womenswear! How does it feel?

Winning the award made me feel a bit overwhelmed, but i’m absolutely excited! I’m also really grateful to everyone who supported the work, the honour should also belong to them.

4. In a few words, how you would you best describe your style?

Contemporary, narrative, futuristic, detailed.

5. Tell us about that unique texture you use and how you source your
materials?

I was inspired by the urban village in my hometown. It’s actually a mountain city in southwest of China and has been under construction all the time due to the need of expansion. So there were a lot of overlapping buildings and highways constructed in 3 dimensions, which also buried and merged numerous old construction with the new ones. I wanted to do the story telling also in a 3D way on the textile without too much artificial trace on the final work. So I decided to design the moulds and put most of manipulating process in the making of the moulds. I pretty much experimented in sourcing casting materials and finally decided on the food – grade silicone as the most recyclable and flexible material to use.

6. Apart from your own designs, tell us about the one designer you’d
happily dress you everyday.

Jill Sander. I just love the subtle colour and clever cut of her outfits.

7. What’s next for Alexandra Fan?

I plan to step into the industry first. I hope to work in the field of womenswear design or textile design somewhere in the world – there is no limit or location restrictions for me. I wish to exercise the knowledge I learnt in college and from my internship experience to the fullest in the near future. I also want to learn about the balance of commercial fashion and innovation.