AN
award-winning British fashion designer recently paid a visit to Thurrock recently to deliver a masterclass to Fashion students of South Essex College.
Julian Roberts, who has shown 13 collections at London Fashion Week, demonstrated a revolutionary pattern cutting technique he invented, called ‘subtraction cutting’, to fifty BA (Hons) Fashion Design and FdA Fashion and Textiles students.
Having shown the technique to fashion, architect and 3D design students around the world, Julian dropped into the Thurrock Campus for the day to give the students a workshop in the practice before each of the young creatives transformed six metre roles of fabrics into garments of their own in just eight hours.
Thurrock Campus Foundation degree student Jack Edward Palmer, 21, from Purfleet said: “It’s not every day you get a new, world-class designer demonstrate to you personally a technique that he developed himself so it’s been a really unique and enjoyable experience.”
Subtraction cutting looks at pattern cutting from different angle and through a new eye which encourages pattern cutters to challenge the conventional rules and not worry so much about mathematics and measurements. Each student used different fabrics, colours and textures to create their one-off experimental pieces.
South Essex College Curriculum Leader Fashion, Jenny Sinton, said: “Taking part in a workshop delivered by an industry professional was a fantastic opportunity for the students to expand their knowledge of creative practices and open their minds to a whole new approach to fashion design which will undoubtedly benefit them in their future studies or employment.”
