Friday 8th until Wednesday 13th May 2009 @ Centrespace Gallery, Bristol

When I tell people I study two-dimensional fashion they say; ‘Ooh - That’s really interesting!’ Most people expect a fashion student to be labouring away designing and making garments and accessories but there is another side to it. Two-dimensional fashion covers a number of subjects such as illustration, photography, styling and magazine work.

On May 8th hidden down a dark, dank alleyway, the Centrespace Gallery was buzzing with excitement and laughter as we opened our first show to the public, displaying our final pieces of our three-year degree specialising in two-dimensional fashion at UWE. Organised by Ellie Rymell from my course, all fourteen of us got together to try and create an exciting and diverse show displaying what the new generation of fashion photographers, illustrators and stylists have got to offer the world of fashion and art.

On Leonard Lane, just off Corn Street, Centrespace Gallery really is an unexpected hidden gem. Surrounded by fairy lights, this white space was the perfect space for our show. The work we displayed here was greatly varied and worked brilliantly as a group. As fashion students we wanted to make the show fun but still professional. With swing music in the background and everyone dressed up, the gallery soon filled with people discussing and admiring the work.

The illustrators from our group produced work that pushed the idea of what fashion illustration is; from expressional, experimental drawings of the female form to intricate and delicate embroidered birds and fluid ink illustrations.

On one wall was displayed a huge photograph of a model underwater, surrounded by swirling fabrics and bright explosions of colour by Ella Nott. This piece and its great scale, which had a quality of a painting in composition and colour, made you feel like you could almost step into it. Other photographs varied from being embossed, voyeuristic and cleverly photo-shopped. My own images were three small ambiguous photographs of the female silhouette surrounded by large white mounts based on the theme of solitude.

One of the students, Joanna Wills, studying styling, had produced a Perspex box containing a professionally bound book with pages filled with her own drawings and photo shoots displaying her progressive work and strong style of block colours and futuristic Edward Scissorhands references.

The show was a real success and we hope the next one will be just as good. Our work will be shown again alongside the three-dimensional fashion students’ catwalk in the Passenger Shed at Temple Meads Saturday 23rd May 2009. We also have another private view on Friday 12th June 2009 at the UWE Bower Ashton campus. Come along!

www.centrespacegallery.com

Alexandra Walters