MEET THE GFW19 AWARD WINNERS : AOIFE MALONE — Graduate Fashion Foundation

Firstly, a huge congratulations on winning at Graduate Fashion Week 2019! What award did you win?

Thank you so much! I’m so over the moon. I won the Fashion Styling and Creative Direction award sponsored by Size?.

How did it feel when your name was read out during the show?

I honestly couldn’t believe it. The other nominees were all absolutely amazing and I so felt so lucky to even be considered for the award. I was genuinely so shocked to find out that I had been shortlisted at all. All my university friends and lecturers were in the audience and my mum was watching the live stream back home in Belfast so to hear my name called out was really amazing.

Which university did you attend & how do you think they prepared you for graduation?

I studied Fashion Communication BA at Heriot Watt University in Galashiels which is a small town in Scotland. The final year of university happened so fast and the preparation for our final major projects really was an intense time. Before we knew it GFW was around the corner and then really soon after that we had graduated!

What is the most valuable thing that you learnt there?

The most valuable thing I learned during my time at university is that when creating an image, the story and narrative is everything. The narrative is always what comes first and then you can build the styling/overall image around the story you’re telling. My lecturer always put a huge emphasis on the narrative of shoots and after we had all completed our final major projects, we realised how important this was,

Tell us about your story. What lead you to fashion and choosing that course

I've always had an interest in fashion and the arts and I started my blog www.bellamalone.com when I was 14 to share my personal style and purchases. I've always been obsessed with charity shopping and would drag my mum around all of our nearest charity shops to trawl through the rails for hidden gems. It was as a result of my blog that I was able to meet a-lot of Northern Irish photographers, stylists and designers and I ended up becoming a regular at the fashion and PR events in Northern Ireland. I actually had no plans on going to university and planned on interning instead so the decision to move to Scotland was very last minute and spontaneous. I spotted the course online and decided to apply, within a week I had been accepted and planned my move to Scotland. I spent the first week crying a lot and regretting moving away from home but after a week or so I had met my best friends and I’ve now lived with them for the last four years.

What themes do you explore with your final year project? And what do they mean to you?

My final major project is called 3 Miles Wide and it is a call to action for change in Northern Ireland regrading 6 topics including same sex marriage rights, abortion rights, the peace wall, the 12th of July celebrations, segregated schools and paramilitary attacks. These issues are often not nice to hear about but translating them into fashion images was a way for me to explain the situation in Northern Ireland through a creative medium. I’ve always had a huge interest in the North of Irelands history and current political climate and feel really truly passionate about it so it made sense that I covered this topic for my final major project. When I moved to Scotland, I realised how little my new friends knew about what goes on in Northern Ireland and would proceed to bend their ear off over the likes of the DUP and abortion/same sex marriage rights.

Talk us through your final project presented at GFW. How did that come about?

My final project was presented in the form of a hardback publication with exposed binding. I choose this style of binding because when looking through the publication the spreads lie totally flat and I loved the open and exposed nature particularly when it came to double page spreads. Next to my publication visitors to GFW could see my process document and research book which showed all test shoots, research and model casting and gave a feel for how the finally publication came to life.

What sort of work did you undertake and how did you decide to work this way?

My initial process was to come up with the narratives of the shoots first and then everything else fell into place. The locations of the shoots were vital, all shoots were shot on location in Belfast and each location was relative to the narrative. For example: I shot my same sex marriage shoot at Belfast City Hall, my segregated schools shoot in my old all girls catholic school and my 12th of July shoot on the Shankill road which is a protestant stronghold. The styling was also relative to each shoot, I took inspiration from 1970s Northern Ireland for the punishment beatings shoot and created looks using lots of mesh and tulle for my abortion shoot to represent the female anatomy. Everything had meaning to ensure it the entire image was both thoughtful and authentic.

Describe the inspiration and concept behind your work.

As mentioned, I’ve always had a huge interest in the North of Irelands political climate and with Teresa May going into coalition with the DUP in 2017 I felt like the UK was only just finding out what the DUP is all about. With the heightened awareness people started to realise how badly NI is being run but people on the mainland still had no idea about so many other aspects of life in Northern Ireland that must change like punishment beatings and abortion rights. 3 Miles Wide acts as a call to action for change in the North of Ireland and it informs the reader through fashion imagery and interviews around the 6 topics. The judges at Graduate Fashion Week themselves were so shocked to hear about some of the issues and statistics.

Do you explore any political, social or historical notions through your work? If so, what messages do you hope to convey?

I drew a lot of inspiration from 1970s Northern Ireland when the troubles were at their highest point when it came to the research and styling of 3 Miles Wide. I researched thoroughly for the first 4 months of my final year looking at both the past and present Northern Ireland. I became very well versed in statistics around NI today so I could do the shoots justice. For example; 90% of schools in Northern Ireland are still segregated. I found this really shocking, I went to an all-girls Catholic school and I did feel as if I were only taught differently to those in a mixed school. There was a serious emphasis on teaching Irish as a language, Irish history and Irish literature. The styling of my shoots were all relative to each narrative. My segregated schools shoot was styled with block colours that represented each side of the divide and I had my models cross over limbs in a lot of the shots to represent crossing into each others community.

Abortion laws was also a very important topic for me to cover, on average 28 women travel from NI to the UK for abortions every week. This is such a troubling thing to hear and from the outset I knew I would be including abortion laws in 3 Miles Wide. My shoot was shot in Belfast city centre and I had my model styled in almost Victorian clothing with lots of tulle and mesh to represent the female antomy.

The 12th of July was based on the 12th of July celebrations that have cost the tax payer £153,000 since 2013. The celebrations are due to be a family friendly event but by nightfall they often turn violent and involve a huge amount of police presence. The 12th of July shoot was styled with a traditional pipe band members uniform. I was so lucky to be able to source these garments from a friend of my grandfathers who he met when he worked for the fire brigade in the 1970s. The gentleman who kindly let me borrow the garments thought I was just photographing them on a mannequin because they are worth thousands but I couldn’t give up the opportunity to shoot them on a model so they went in the boot of my mums car and we headed to the Shankill road to shoot. .

Many say that the industry is undergoing a huge change, with sustainability, diversity and responsibility becoming huge themes. Do you have any opinions on these movements?

At university diversity and sustainability have always been huge talking points so using diverse models was always at the top of my list when putting my publication together. All of my models were from the North of Ireland and I wanted to show the many faces of Northern Ireland and how diverse it really is. All of the garments used to style the shoots were sourced from charity shops and nothing was bought new to keep waste to a minimum, plus I’ve always preferred styling shoots with charity shop finds as I think it makes the imagery more authentic and less staged. I’m delighted that the industry is looking to diversity and responsibility as vital aspects of design and creativity going forward. Fashion is a massive influential industry which means it 100% should be trailblazing the way forward and how we all need to change our habits.

How would you describe your personal style? What influences you the most?

ThI've been reading fashion blogs since I was 13 so I’m really influenced by style bloggers and street style. I love 80’s style pieces like varsity jackets, cord and flares. I’m not a fan of following trends or buying into popular labels and would much rather find a one-off piece in a charity shop

How are you hoping your work will evolve in the future?

I would love to pursue creative direction in the future as my favourite part of my university course was always coming up with the concepts for shoots and ensuring they are executed well. I’d love to be working with a brand that I really love creating content for their social channels or styling shoots for brand campaigns. I’m really passionate about content creation and would love to work with that as part of my career in the future.

Do you have any upcoming projects we should be on the lookout for?

I’m currently still based in Edinburgh creating content for my blog and saving up for my big move to NYC!

Graduate Fashion Week provides a platform for emerging fashion graduates to showcase their work regardless of the specific discipline. Which area of the industry are you hoping to pursue, and what informed this choice?

I'd love to work in styling or creative direction, I love coming up with shoot themes and working on different brand campaigns would be a really amazing career. Winning the Fashion Styling & Creative Direction Award at GFW has really given me a confidence boost with regards to my creative direction and styling abilities.

Tell us a bit more about your career journey since showing at Graduate Fashion Week. How have you found life in the industry?

I’m currently still based in Edinburgh working in a boutique and creating content for various brands through my own blog and social channels. I plan to move home in January to save up before moving to New York next year to work as an intern in my discipline. Winning the award at GFW gave me confidence in going down the route of creative direction which I didn't think was possible before the award. In-between now and NYC I'll be staying in Edinburgh and working away on Bella Malone and hopefully other creative projects!

What one thing would you recommend our visitors do whilst at GFW?

Chat to students showcasing their work, seeing a publication and then hearing about it can be very different things and speaking to the students first hand means you can get a deeper understanding of the inspirations behind their work.

If you could give one piece of advice to yourself in first year at university, what would it be?

I’m not going to lie I would wake up at the last minute and was never really prepared for my classes. I spent a lot of time challenging my lecturers which I don’t regret but I probably should’ve trusted what they were saying more because of course they were right! As time went on, I got more used to what was expected of us and started to really enjoy it and often the intensity of it. I enjoyed every second of my university experience so I’d also say to cherish it because it’s over in a flash and the university experience is just as important as what you learn from the actual course.

What top five tips would you give to final year students?

It’s easy to get overwhelmed during final year and I often found myself thinking how in gods name am I going to end up with a full publication that I’ve made from scratch all by myself?! However, you WILL get it done;

just take it day by day and believe in yourself and your subject.
Always be true to yourself and stick to what you're passionate about,
if you try to cover a subject because it's on trend or it's what you think you should be doing people will see right through it.
Know your stuff and do it well.

As part of your prize, you were invited by Size? to style their new shoot. How was this experience and what did you learn?

It was such an amazing experience; the HQ and team were so welcoming and good to me. I had actually never styled a shoot that wasn’t my own before and was quite nervous but the head stylist Grace and photographer Jack were so easy to get on with and we just had great craic working on the shoot. Grace the size? Stylist taught me so much in such a short space of time, the most important thing being that the devil is definitely in the detail and you have to be on the lookout 24/7 during the shoot to make sure the clothing looks it’s best and all logos etc are perfectly visible for each shot.