Fashion students rise to challenge of Topman brief
Fashion students at Nottingham Trent University have created menswear collections aimed at high-street retailer Topman after being challenged by the company to design for its spring/summer Topman Design 2011 range. Working in teams the fashion design students have created 12 different menswear collections, which they have presented to a panel of Topman representatives.
Topman, which offers the university’s fashion design students various work placement opportunities, will now look at selecting a winning group. The students, based in the university’s School of Art and Design, will also showcase their collections during a catwalk show next month.
The brief required the second year students to produce items – including sweaters, hoodies, coats, tailored jackets, shirts, casual trousers, jeans and shorts – which embraced the values of the brand.
Each team created a sketchbook outlining their design concept, and storyboards showing the key influences and directions of the collection prior to design. This contained information such as trends, influences, cultural and social aspects, design development, garment ideas, colours, textures and fabrics. A market research report was also produced, with the students taking into account the typical customer’s lifestyle and shopping behaviour.
Fashion design lecturer, Sue Walton, said: “Topman has given the students a fantastic opportunity to design for the higher end of the brand, Topman Design, which focuses on offering more individual, designer-led pieces for this highly-regarded British fashion brand. This project has helped students realise the importance of designing within commercial restraints, whilst still offering cutting-edge garments that appeal to the fashion savvy Topman Design customer.”
Marcus Rigg, senior designer for Topman, said: “The standard of work was exceptionally high, and many of the presentations completely exceeded my expectations. I can appreciate the long hours put into this project by all of the students, and it was a pleasure to see the finished collections, many of which could have gone straight to production to sell in our top end stores.”
