Target reached!
This stretch target will be used to expand this mini collection and grow it into a f...
#Collection4Collection
Birmingham, England, United Kingdom
Aim
Please help me to raise funds for my new menswear collection and make my dreams a reality!
Hi everyone!
My name is Alexandria Chantiluke and I am a Fashion Design graduate from Birmingham, UK. On October 28th 2017 I will be participating in the FDC Radical Designer Awards. This event will take place at Pullman London St Pancras to raise funds and awareness for the Angelman Syndrome Support Education and Research Trust. By participating in this competition, I have the chance to win the Radical Designer of the year award and have my collection displayed in New York City, USA. This competition has the potential to expand my network significantly and open various opportunities for me in the fashion design industry, an industry which is famously difficult to infiltrate. For this competition, I am required to produce a mini collection of three outfits. In order to design and produce competitive garments I will require £3000. I am asking you for your support in helping me to achieve the goal of producing a full catwalk collection for this potentially life-changing opportunity.
Being based in Birmingham has given me so much inspiration for the collections that I have designed so far. However, it has also presented difficulties in terms of access to fashion design opportunities. It is with this in mind that I believe that competing in the FDC Radical Designer competition will be the springboard that will help to kickstart my career in an industry that remains so inaccessible to so many young creatives like myself, as I will have the opportunity to showcase my designs to a wide audience in a fashion capital city. For my new spring/summer collection I aim to push my creativity and expand on the themes of my graduate dissertation about materialism in hip hop. I will also be focusing on themes of postmodernism and hope to challenge our preconceptions of masculinity particularly as it relates to black culture.
What will my donation be used for?
Many people are unaware of how much it actually costs for fashion designers to produce a full clothing collection: for example, in my final year of my BA Fashion Design degree a significant amount of the money went towards...
- The cost of fabrics and various other materials needed to construct the garments.
- Trips to and from London to visit exhibitions as part of my research and to also purchase fabrics.
- Costs for models and photographers and also accessories to complement the collection.
- The specialist equipment that is required to help fashion students produce a high standard of portfolio work. An organisation called the Foyer Federation were a huge support as they helped me to buy a Wacom tablet and a Nikon camera in preparation for my final major project, the absence of which would have made it near impossible to create my final year portfolio.
In addition to this as I am now trying to establish myself as a designer and any money raised would also go towards expanding my advertising platform and creating a look-book photoshoot for the collection.
Have you tried to raise any of this money for yourself?
I have already begun my fundraising campaign by using my design skills to customise t-shirts for sale. By using the remaining materials from my previous collection I am creating t-shirts that still capture the essence of my Swamp81 graduate collection. I have also been braiding hair to help support my collection and in 2weeks I have been able to raise £400. As amazing as this is a lot of help is still required in order for me to be able to reach my £3000 goal before the competition in October.
How will your fashion career benefit your local community?
I believe that celebrating fashion diversity and creativity all throughout the UK is very important and being a fashion design creative from Birmingham I aim to continue to support Birmingham initiatives and events. As many creative and arts centres in Birmingham have been closing down due to lack of funding it is essential for those that remain to receive continued support. My graduate collection focused on the Birmingham black british community and the riots that occurred in Handsworth in the 1980’s. This collection was displayed in Birmingham’s Heritage week exhibition 2016 and in the #BlackLivesMatter:Brum 2016 exhibition. I used my creative platform to shine a light on Birmingham’s heritage and black history. Alongside this competition I am also participating in two other fundraiser events where my graduate collection will be shown. One of which is the DonationUK Birmingham Fashion Fair to help raise awareness for the charities Rik Basra Leukaemia Campaign and the African Caribbean Leukaemia Trust. In addition to this I also give annual motivational talks to school leavers at Great Barr Academy (my old secondary school). I show the students what I have been able to achieve since leaving school and inspire them to always aim high and pursue their dreams.
What have you achieved in your fashion career so far?
In 2015, I was selected as a finalist in the Savile Row Training Academy: National Design and Tailoring Awards. I spent a year interning in the fashion industry with bespoke tailors Timothy Everest and Richard James on Savile Row in London. Alongside this I was successful in winning a Talent Bond from the Foyer Federation to help support my fashion studies. I won the annual Hawes and Curtis shirt design competition in 2016 and my design will be part of the new autumn/winter 2017 collection. I graduated in July 2016 with a BA Honours in Fashion Design from Nottingham Trent University. Alongside this at the start of this year I had an exclusive interview with London’s Gal-dem magazine and my graduate collection was featured in their magazine. Even with all of my previous experience the fashion industry is still extremely hard to get into and my journey through fashion so far has been a difficult one, but I have remained motivated, passionate and determined to achieve my career goals and fully establish myself as a designer. This has been my journey so far and I am ready to move onto the next stage of my career. I have not yet reached my full potential and I still have so much more that I wish to learn I just require your help to make a start.
This project successfully funded on 27th September 2017