Hannah Sykes
Hannah Sykes studied fashion design at the Manchester School of Art and she showcased her graduate collection “Razzle Dazzle” at the most recent Oxford Fashion Week. This AW16 collection featured innovative use of ink and the combination of screen and digital print for a unique effect.
How well do you find technology fuses with fashion?
I used innovative inks and technical pattern cutting in my collection. The outerwear has the ability to change into a functional rucksack, plus they change colour in the rain… What more technology would you want? Well, my next collection is going to involve even more intelligence. Just wait…
What was the inspiration behind your collection?
My AW16 collection initially started when I was fabric-sourcing in China. A particular pattern of the fabric initiated my research into the razzle dazzle camouflage, used as a defence on the World War I ships. This created my story of a woman pretending to be a man so she could be with her husband at war. Soppy love story, I know.
I finally created 
my own interpretation of the dazzle camouflage in a variety of colours to help to disguise the identity of the woman by disrupting the outline of her figure. I then combined this WWI camouflage with my innovative colour-changing ink, which changes colour in the rain.
What inspired the youthful energy of your collection?
My collection was solely in screen print with a small amount of digital print, which gave an overall impact with my double print and the reflection of colours throughout my collection. Even though I am a Womenswear designer, my work reflects an androgynous aesthetic so it is still accessible to men. I wanted to bring a cool urban element to my collection, so it doesn’t look like another military inspired collection.
Daniel Pascal Tanner
Daniel Pascal is a London-based designer who graduated from The London College of Fashion, University of the Arts London in 2014. His designs are instantly recognisable from his innovations in traditional textile and craft techniques.
What was your inspiration for this collection?
Funnily, it began by seeing two five year olds fighting over a princess dress – one of them was a little boy! I found the child’s strength of character courageous! I was astonished by how much gender classification is already embedded in a child’s development by the age of five with the statement made during the tussle: “pink is only for girls!”
I began looking into the portrayal of the Fairy Tale Princess. Eventually my research led me to recontextualised fairy tales, such as My Princess Boy by Cheryl Kilodavis. In these tales, the characters set out on a journey or quest, so I looked for garment references and imagery of female pioneers who challenged the female gender norms throughout history as well as traditional European folk costume, street style photographs of people who dress in a gender-neutral way, and 19th Century cabinet photography, in which historians could only tell the gender of the child by the style of the curls in their hair.
Do you believe that clothing should be gendered?
I think people should be able to wear whatever they want without prejudice! I get a sense that things have changed for the better in cosmopolitan cities and in younger generations, however I still see such gender paranoia with parents smothering their children in that awful synthetic pink colour for girls and basic blue for boys! I don’t think gender is as dichotomous as society portrays, I think gender is more on a spectrum and this should be reflected in the clothes and fashion available to choose from.
How do you strike the balance between creativity and drawing from previous fashion traditions?
I use photography, filming, drawing and collaged stop animation to combine modern and historical references from my research. My muse and mood for my collection emerges from my artwork like a character! I guess this way of working has evolved from my past as a West End dancer, surrounded by characterisation and costume. I couldn’t be a designer who just draws- I’d get too bored!
Why do you see fashion as empowering?
For me, fashion is empowering as it’s about crafting your unique identity. With an understanding that 60% of our communication is non-verbal, what we wear says a lot about us.
