Louise Alsop 2013

I've been thinking a lot lately about what it means to be a "cool older girl in high school"- not in a creepy way but to kind of monitor how teenage girls suddenly experiment with how they look and what they wear. There was a moment in Inside Out where Riley transfers to her knew school and mentally takes note of who she should be friends with, singling out the "cool girl" in the room with half black and half blue hair. I always aspired to BE the cool older girl, and when I help out kids in high school I know from work or those who are at the university for work experience I kinda try to give off those vibes but. Yeah it never happened for me. At most I will wear ripped tights underneath a cute skirt or dress but that's as far as I've ever gotten. On the other hand, Louise Alsop totally understands and her designs embody this wild energy with her simple monochromatic and heavily frayed designs. It appears many of the Westminster Graduates were encouraged to reconstruct and subsequently deconstruct their designs for the purpose of *fashion* but none did it quite as well as she did. Plus she created health goth BEFORE IT WAS EVEN A THING!! These clothes are way better than the traditional health goth and minus the Adidas slide sandals.

*Images via Westminster Fashion

Niall Cottrell 2015

Continuing the Westminster themed blog posts we find Niall Cottrell, proudly and somewhat emphatically waving the flag for menswear. What really struck me was how wearable the pieces were from each graduate in particular Cottrell's creations. I clicked on a picture from instagram thinking it was J.W. Anderson for profanity's sake! Mind you this was after a full day at the computer editing photos, as well as mindlessly writing in a zombie-lake state for several hours. I loved both the techniques as well as intensity of colour from this collection, which shrouded each figure in a warrior-like silhouette. What I also found interesting were a couple of one shoulder menswear pieces, something which we would typically associate with dressing the female figure. In many ways it challenged our perceptions of gender but in a way which was largely overt. Or rather it was hidden in plain sight amongst a sea of colour.

*Photos via Westminster Fashion