For decades more prominent fashion institutions such as London's Central Saint Martins seemed to be more popular in the fashion scene and with critics, but things may have finally changed.
Edinburgh College of Art (ECA) has for example produced consistent groups of talented designers, winning several awards at different editions of London's Graduate Fashion Week.
Last year Aurélie Fontan, a Fashion – BA (Hons) graduating student, won the M&S Womenswear Award, the Catwalk Textiles Award, and the Dame Vivienne Westwood Sustainable & Ethical Award, and coming runner-up in the Christopher Bailey Gold Award, Hilary Alexander Trailblazer Award, and Considered Design Showcase.
Competition was fierce at this year's GFW with students from 95 fashion programs from the UK and beyond showcasing their designs (the LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton group also made an appearance with a dedicated hub where graduates could present their portfolios to the LVMH team, ask for advise and apply for positions).
Yet ECA did it again: Brian Mc Lysaght from Edinburgh College of Art took home three prixes – the top prize Christopher Bailey Collection of the Year Award, as well as the Hilary Alexander Trailblazer Award and Conscious Design Award Sponsored by Swarovski.
Mc Lysaght won with a collection made with sustainable and biodegradable wooden tiles paired with organic and recycled fabrics.
The collection moved from the environmental impact the fashion industry has on our planet, but, being into culture, anthropology and museum artefacts, Mc Lysaght was also inspired by ancient Irish culture, British colonialism and the pro-Indian Swadeshi movement.
The garments, conceived by the designer more like showpieces and artefacts rather than conventional clothes, featured at times tribal patterns and looked suspended between the attires of warriors and deities. Mc Lysaght hopes to focus in future on sustainable fashion and ethical supply chains.
There were more good news for ECA as Alexandra Fan, also from Edinburgh College of Art, scooped the Womenswear Award, with a collection inspired by changing urban environments and landscapes, revolving around exaggerated silhouettes and based on inventive materials such as silicone with lines relief cast from laser cut moulds.
The George Catwalk to Store Award went to another ECA graduate, Rosie Baird, for her collection that combined and reworked Scottish themes such as Highland cows, sporrans and the Loch Ness Monster, and that featured outerwear ideal for a urban glocal dweller.
Before being showcased at London's GFW, the ECA collections were previewed at a runway event that took place in May at the National Museum of Scotland's Grand Gallery.
Earlier on in May at a GFW preview, Edinburgh College of Art shared with Birmingham University the WGSN Portfolio Commendation Awards recognising colleges whose portfolios display outstanding strengths in specific areas.
What's the secret behind ECA's magic allowing the college to keep on presenting new, inventive and intriguing collections by its graduates?
Probably the fact that the college boasts indefatigable lecturers such as Mal Burkinshaw, ECA Fashion Programme Director, and it runs a programme advocating increased diversity in the fashion design industries, besides Edinburgh is further away from more prominent fashion capitals and this allows students to grow up in a healthier environment with fewer pressures, developing inspirations and ideas in collaboration with their colleagues rather than in competition with them.
