Meet GFF Talent, Francesca Merrick, a fashion graduate from Manchester Metropolitan University. Francesca’s final major project is inspired by her Scottish heritage. “There is an importance of sustaining heritage and roots throughout our modern and ever changing society, by using my family's stories and our clan's tartans I am reviving their livelihood and joy.” says Francesca. Read all about it below!
What is the most valuable thing you have learnt at university?
I have learnt the value in using my voice as a designer to raise awareness and make a stand for the issues I believe in through my projects and design ethos. No matter how big or small, using my design work to push change within society and the fashion industry as a whole adds deeper perspective to an industry frequently seen as vacuous and shallow. There is so much more to a designer and the fashion design industry than the external output, this is something that I would have never truly explored if it wasn't for my university.
What was the starting point of inspiration for your final project?
I have always known that I wanted to use my Scottish heritage as a basis for my final collection. My Scottish roots are a huge part of my family but they are something I have never known much about and felt very detached from growing up in Wales. There is an importance of sustaining heritage and roots throughout our modern and ever changing society, by using my family's stories and our clan's tartans I am reviving their livelihood and joy. Ensuring that the history of where we come from is not lost, making my heritage sustainable and forever living in a creative, forward thinking way.
What form does the final project take?
My final collection will take the form of a range of garments, all interchangeable and wearable. My collection will be new and exciting but have an evident undertone of education, bringing light and enjoyment into historical Scottish heritage sustaining its value and importance in modern day culture.
What materials have you used and how did you source them?
I am using a range of high quality technical materials mixed with natural based materials and printing on them with my university facilities. I have made sure when getting these materials that, especially with some being synthetic, they are recycled or recyclable and due to being great quality they will have much longer and more circular lifestyle. My heavier cotton fabrics and the synthetic bases I am not printing on have come from a forward thinking supplier in Italy who have a huge emphasis on sustainable manufacture and quality, and creating a longer life span for their fabrics - allowing ,e to create a collection that will last.
How has it evolved from your initial ideas and what have you learnt along the way?
Initially, the kilt was a major centre piece in my collection ideas. My first thoughts when I came up with my inspiration for this collection was that I wanted to reimagine the kilt and my family's clan tartan in an innovative way. However the more I delved into the Fraser's and Scotland's history or the kilt and the highland fling, I found there is so much more to the traditions than just kilts and tartans. It was almost naive of me to assume this was all that would be needed to resurface the nearly forgotten history of my family's heritage. My ideas evolved and are constantly evolving through my continuous research and now there are so many more layers to my graduate collection than just the kilt. regardless, the kilt is something that allowed my collection to evolve and grow and it holds a great respect in my line up.
What are the messages and themes behind your project that you want people to take away? Do explore any topics like diversity, sustainability or politics in your work?
My collection highlights how important not losing sight of your heritage is, that we owe it to ourselves and our families to give where we come from a platform in our everyday lives so it is not forgotten. Allowing heritage and history to become sustainable in the form of culturural sustainability and circularity. In every project I create there is an emphasis on cultural awareness while creating garments that are sustainable environmentally too, like with my carefully selected environmentally friendly fabrics. Both coincide and work together effectively in my project making it a rounded sustainable collection with a key positive message.
What’s an aspect of the fashion industry that you’re passionate about fixing or having a positive impact on?
The aspect which all fashion designers should be passionate about is the crippling un-sustainability of the fashion industry and its impact on our world climate. My mission as a designer is to have a positive impact on the global crisis by not allowing my self to fall into the trap of creating shallow garments with no consideration of sustainability, always making sure the garments will also have a positive impact.
Aside from this, I am truly passionate about exhibiting important and positive stories through my designs, bringing awareness to causes I care about and that I feel the industry needs to help towards too especially in light of the global pandemic and negativity it caused. In past projects I have raised a range of issues like the importance of the loneliness felt by the elderly community and in multiple projects I resurfaced history and culture of lost traditions and communities, elevating them into modern society.
What is your plan once you finish your BA?
Following my degree, I hope to get a grad job or internship designing for a company or brand that follows the same ethos / belief as me, allowing myself to develop and progress as a menswear designer. To get a role in a job in a different country would be the ultimate goal, I would love to experience different environments and cities throughout my future career.