Royal College of Art graduate fashion show 2014: our pick of the new names to know

Two photos with a female model walking down the catwalk
Designs by Royal College of Art 2014 fashion graduate Katherine Roberts-Wood, shown last night in London
(Image credit: TBC)

The Royal College of Art, with its emphasis on cross-disciplinary fashion education and small-scale approach to teaching, has earned a reputation for nurturing exceptional talent in its menswear, womenswear and knitwear courses.

We spotted a wealth of potential in this year's thirty fashion graduates, which the college has helped them develop. The collection's individual differences in concept and execution were a clear testament to how research into materials and techniques is stimulated here, but most of all, how the post-graduate environment encourages risk-taking. At the RCA, the experience of designing a final collection is about the personal journey of exploration and creation.

The overarching mood of this season's show? 'There is a lot of fabric manipulation going on,' explains Professor Wendy Dagworthy. 'The students are all inspired by different things, so the collections are very individual, but there's a powerful theme overall. The School of Materials has clearly had an effect. We encourage research into new materials and we allow students to go into workshops in different fields and experiment.'

Professor Dagworthy, one of the founders of London Fashion Week, is retiring from the RCA this year after a 16-year tenure, during which she has cemented the institution's status as a breeding ground for creativity. It makes this year's graduate show particularly momentous.

Pieces of fashion architecture could be found in Katherine Roberts-Wood's womenswear collection, whose rigid silhouettes with undulating details were constructed from harness-like felt structures. Louise Annis cut her coats with curved, reinforced shoulders, offered up new pocket forms, and a bolder saturation point - pairing Pop-hued crimson with magenta.

Big shapes recurred throughout the show, also in softer silhouettes like James Kelly's oversized parkas with feathery surfaces and Eva-Maria Suviste's collection, where silky fabrics on loose-cut garments became bulky through tightly woven frayed panels. Material experimentation is after all the college's calling card. Emma Hardstaff seemed to bring a coherent synthesis of the womenswear theme, crafting her own crackled metallic fabric concoction, composed of foiled fake fur and lace.

A standout menswear collection by Ellen Pederson played with ruching and gathering details, bringing a lightweight feeling of sophistication to masculine shapes. Dan Prasad took the classic men's suit and updated it by removing the collar, but adding fabric elsewhere, in the form of strips and longer under layers that added fluidity.

As Professor Dagworthy concludes her immensely influential career, we quizz her about the past and present...

W*: What exactly is the role of education in fashion design? What do your students have that self-taught designers may not?
Professor Wendy Dagworthy: A fashion education teaches technical skills, like drawing and creative pattern cutting. If you've don't have a formal education, you will of course have a more open mind, because there are no rules in place. But I do think an education makes you better equipped. You learn how to inform others of what you want. How to communicate through drawing what a pattern cutter has to execute. At the RCA we encourage personal research and through education you learn how to use that research fully.

Fashion has become more present as a career choice. Is there an evolution you've seen in the designers that have been under your tutelage, in how they approach their education?
Yes, they are more aware. Everything around them affects them - music, art exhibitions - it's all connected. They're also more professional. When we started we didn't know what we were doing, there weren't even seasons to work towards! Most colleges now also have professional guidance, so students know their options more: they can start on their own or they can work within the industry. They learn how to behave, put a portfolio together. More and more students now venture into film; we encourage them to find other ways of presenting their work.

As a designer yourself, what have you tried to express?
I looked at travel and different cultures like India and Africa. I was also inspired by workwear. It was an easy, comfortable look, which was about making unusual things work together with attention to detail.

Has it influenced your judgment as a teacher?
Yes, with students I tend to look at details, like what type of buttons to use. But as a teacher the most important thing you try to nurture is the confidence to believe in yourself. You have to know what's going on around you but you have to keep your individuality. And of course enjoy it.

Two pictures side by side of a two female models walking down the catwalk

Roberts-Wood's womenswear collection explores rigid silhouettes with undulating details that were constructed from harness-like felt structures

(Image credit: TBC)

Two pictures of female models wearing red outfits walking the catwalk

Fellow 2014 graduate Louise Annis upped the saturation point, pairing Pop-hued crimson with magenta

(Image credit: TBC)

female models wearing a white and red outfit walking the catwalk

Annis cut her coats with curved, reinforced shoulders, also offering up new pocket formations

(Image credit: TBC)

two pictures of female models walking the cat walk

Big shapes recurred throughout the show, exemplified by these voluminous designs by James Kelly

(Image credit: TBC)

Two female models walking the catwalk, with a blue and green outfit

Kelly's oversized parkas were festooned with fly-away feathers

(Image credit: TBC)

Two female models walking the catwalk

Material experimentation - the college's calling card - is especially evident in the work of Eva-Maria Suviste

(Image credit: TBC)

Two pictures of female models walking the catwalk, the left wearing purple and the right wearing orange

Suviste's designs work silky fabrics on loose-cut garments, which become bulky through tightly woven frayed panels

(Image credit: TBC)

two pictures of female models walking the catwalk

Emma Hardstaff crafted her own crackled metallic fabric concoction, composed of foiled fake fur and lace

(Image credit: TBC)

Each Hardstaff design has been cocooned in sheer tulle

Each Hardstaff design has been cocooned in sheer tulle

(Image credit: TBC)

Ellen Pederson dominated the sportif menswear line-up

Ellen Pederson dominated the sportif menswear line-up

(Image credit: TBC)

Pederson played with ruching and gathering details, bringing a lightweight feeling of sophistication to masculine shapes

Pederson played with ruching and gathering details, bringing a lightweight feeling of sophistication to masculine shapes

(Image credit: TBC)

Dan Prasad took the classic men's suit and updated it by removing the collar, but adding fabric elsewhere, in the form of strips and longer under layers that added fluidity

Dan Prasad took the classic men's suit and updated it by removing the collar, but adding fabric elsewhere, in the form of strips and longer under layers that added fluidity

(Image credit: TBC)

2014's exceptional graduate show emphasised the college's cross-disciplinary fashion education. Prasad's pared-back tailoring will surely have Savile Row calling soon...

2014's exceptional graduate show emphasised the college's cross-disciplinary fashion education. Prasad's pared-back tailoring will surely have Savile Row calling soon...

(Image credit: TBC)