In this GFW Live! Talk by TU, the winner of 2017’s TU Menswear Scholarship, Amy Vanderwal and Fashion Designer, Oliver Spencer joined Graduate Fashion Week’s Managing Director, Martyn Roberts to discuss working alongside an established British Fashion Designer and what the award meant for her career.
In this GFW Live! Talk by TU, the winner of 2017’s TU Menswear Scholarship, Amy Vanderwal and Fashion Designer, Oliver Spencer joined Graduate Fashion Week’s Managing Director, Martyn Roberts to discuss working alongside an established British Fashion Designer and what the award meant for her career.
In 2017 Amy Vanderwal wowed the Graduate Fashion Week judges and won the TU Menswear Scholarship Award for her creative and inspiring collection. Her 1980’s punk and gypsy culture inspired designs landed her a year-long scholarship working as part of the commercial design team. The GFW experience was “overwhelming” because “it all happened so quickly”. With British menswear designer, Oliver Spencer as her design mentor Amy translated her GFW collection into a cool and casual range. As a strong supporter of GFW and the work they do Oliver Spencer is often surprised by the talent shown at GFW and “learns from the exhibitors”.
Amy described working at TU as a journey. Her TU collection was quite different to her initial collection because of how hard it was to make the out there graduate collection wearable. The collection incorporated the punk and rebellious attitudes that the initial collection held. Amy shared her belief that success is all about “being in the right place at the right time” and being passionate about your work. She described working with Oliver Spencer as a “valuable experience” and explained that it was like completing a foundation but in the industry.
Oliver Spencer tied up the interview by sharing his advice for students. He believes that 2 years of placement should be completed before anyone should expect to move up the career ladder and that the most important thing any student should do whilst they’re at university is “to work on the shop floor because this will allow you to understand your customer”.
Words by Rosie Smith
Photography by Deborah Smith