Ever wondered about the life of up and coming designer? Stephanie Ransom, graduate fashion designer from Arts University Bournemouth, discusses her fashion journey over the past year of uncertainty.
From research and concept development to designing, textiles and construction, the aspiring designer began to develop her own collection as a part of her final project. Over her years studying at university, Stephanie describes many of the specialist areas of fashion design that she discovered, one in particular being Clo 3D. This digital software allows designers to create virtual, true-to-life garment visualisation throughout the design process. Stephanie speaks on her experience with the platform: 'I used this software throughout my design process, it helped me create initial designs all the way to virtually creating my collection on avatars at the end.'
The graduate also found her love for textiles, creating many of her fabrics, textures and knits herself - she said: 'transferring these raw and rough textiles on to the digital software is what I think made my work stand out.' Whilst working on her virtual designs and textiles, Ransom specialised her time in menswear, finding it more interesting from the research to the construction.
The mood boards for the collection showcased family photographs | Image Credit: Stephanie Ransom
As everything seemingly was running smoothly, the global pandemic of Covid-19 hit the UK, bringing along a national lockdown. This time saw universities close, students move home and all teaching occurring online. With fashion design being a very creative and practical course, Stephanie explains her uncertain and lost feeling during this time: ' it felt like all the things we had been working towards had been taken away - our graduation, catwalks and our collections we had poured our heart and soul in to for the past year.'
After taking some time out to process all of the changes to her final year and degree, the designer took full advantage of the situation and gave it her all. Turning the time of uncertainty into a blessing, lockdown gave her the time she needed to experiment, try new things and spend more time on the little details - as she accomplished things that in normal times she wouldn't have been able to do.
The contemporary menswear collection features hints of the biker subculture | Image Credit: Stephanie Ransom
Stephanie's final collection, completed throughout lockdown on virtual mannequins, is inspired by her dad and the biker culture from his youth. Visiting a time before he was unwell, the up and coming designer 'reconnected old memories from her father's past to the person he is now.' The outcome converts her personal family story into a contemporary menswear collection.
This menswear collection led Stephanie onto win the Adaptation Award at this year's Graduate Fashion Awards, celebrating her resourcefulness and problem-solving skills during this unprecedented time. 'It still doesn't feel real, I honestly have to keep pinching myself,' says Stephanie, 'I felt less scared to enter the industry after that.'
Stephanie's final project saw her designs modelled on virtual mannequins | Image Credit: Stephanie Ransom
Moving forward, Stephanie is currently interning for luxury menswear brand, Liam Hodges. She says: 'He is one of my all-time favourite designers and have been following his work for years so to be able to now work for him is so crazy to me.' With plans to return to university to complete her Masters degree in September 2021, the graduate wishes to continue learning and expanding her skills as a menswear designer. 'The big dream for me is to one day start my own label, just have full creative freedom, that would be amazing.'
In the near future, we can expect to see exciting photoshoots and potentially another catwalk show featuring her current collection. With plans to showcase another collection in the next few years, after completing her Masters studies.
As for now, with university finished Stephanie has recently been getting back into her old hobbies again such as family walks, skating and going to the gym as they reopen.
She says: 'I love to travel, who doesn’t, but haven’t been able to do much of that lately so been getting back in to skating. Being close to the beach was great I could rollerblade along the long beach paths and then get fish and chips.'
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