In review: BA (Hons) Textile Design Degree Show

Read a review of the BA Textile Design Degree Show 2019 by Surface Pattern Designer and Stylist Charlotte Beevor.

As a previous winner at the prestigious New Designers show in London, my visit to NUA was perfectly timed. After updating the team and cohort in the lecture theatre about my career progression in the morning, I swiftly moved over to the studios where the students were awaiting my feedback on their individual collections in preparation for their degree show and a fast approaching New Designers!

Moving my way through the exhibition and after having conversations with the variety of textile disciplined students, it soon became apparent that it was a strong year for weave.

Rebecca Hiscock (pictured above) stood out to me with her combination of concrete samples, abstract wallpaper and gorgeous weaves all inspired by Brutalist Architecture. The contrast of clean, Bauhaus inspired weave combined with hand developed wallpaper made for a really exciting combination with a beautiful colour palette – always something I’m on the look out for!

Rosie May Greenbanks was another weaver that caught my eye. Beautiful, constructed textiles in earthy tones are the heart of what she does, using copper amongst other materials to study structural form and distortion. Rosie also hand paints her warps to add another dimension to her collection and uses copper within them to create some really interesting texture and form.

Libby Basset is another innovative weaver that takes plastic and experiments with a variety of material in order to create new ones. Libby is inspired by construction and this influences her weaves.

But the focus wasn’t all on weavers! The colour lover in me enjoyed all the well thought out palettes that were available at the show. Georgia Stone’s large-scale screen prints inspired by her love of typography and graphic design injected a large pop of colour in the show. Her strong screen printing skills were shown through the uses of procion dyes, foiling and binder.

It was lovely to see some quirky, conversational prints from designer Florence Poppy Dennis (pictured below) – a stand out designer for me at the exhibition. ‘For the love of Dog’ – A cleverly named collection of digitally designed and printed designs inspired by everyday life and humour as well as 60’s and 70’s illustration.

In order to design this joyous collection, Florence mentioned that she simply looks at the day in the life of a dog in order to translate ideas into her illustrations. After hand sketching a variety of layouts, Florence then draws her designs digitally – I think she is going to be very well received at New Designers!

I know too well the anticipation and mixed bag of emotions the students will currently be feeling whilst they prepare for these important shows, but it is a very exciting time and I look forward to seeing what they all get up to next… but don’t just take my word for it – there are so many other fab designers and artists at the show so make sure to visit the show for yourself!

NUA Degree Shows run until Wednesday 3 July.

BA Textile Design