Turn Up the Tartan - Winchester School of Arts MA Students Celebrate the Textiles of Africa and Scotland!

Turn up the Tartan! Winchester School of Art was the electrifying place to be last Wednesday writes journalist and The Luminaries Editor Alison Jane Reid. To a chorus of African beats the future fashion star luminaries of the WSA MA Fashion and Textile degree course unleashed an audacious, cross-cultural spectacle - an interim degree show that was a riot of clan tartans clashed with an ever changing kaleidoscope of charismatic African prints from botanicals to acid bright abstract designs.

Colour, Print, Plaid and Heritage Ruled the Slow Fashion Roost!

Above all, colour, print and heritage plaid ruled the roost and the genius of zero waste cutting techniques pushed the boundaries of flight of fantasy design, thrift and creativity from sensuous tartan evening gowns with magnetic African ruffles bows and bunting to raffish, sartorial suits offering up an optical fantasy of clashing prints and colours, punk mini dresses and traditional African dress mixed up with chains and safety pins.

What was truly exciting was the cutting and design skills and the exciting wearability of the garments as they sashayed and fluttered down the catwalk.

The show produced by the WSA's own student company was a daring and accomplished presentation and a triumph of elegance, technical skill, masterful cutting techniques and a feast of playful cultural appreciation. Laurels are due to the very talented hair and makeup teams who succeeded in capturing the tribal spirit of the show from the African Bush to the Highlands of Scotland and the dreaming spires of the Winchester School of Art.

The Budding Heirs to Westwood, Hamnett and McQueen

It's exciting to see creativity unleashed! Maybe, just maybe, they include the budding heirs to Vivienne Westwood, Katharine Hamnett and Alexander McQueen. Fashion needs new cultural revolutionaries to reflect the times we are living in and to never to stand still.

From references to punk rock, Star Wars, the New Romantics and Braveheart, the WSA fashion Degree show was an invitation to Saturday night and to dress up and flaunt with a guiding hand from Professor Jonathan Faiers, a tartan aficionado, and the author of the 2008 book Tartan, which examines the culture, history and art of tartan. Professor Faiers worked in collaboration with with Samson Saboye, visiting lecturer, fashion designer and stylist at WSA.

Clashing the cultural and visual leitmotifs of Africa and Scotland proved to be a playful and exciting progression from the student's participation in Africa Fashion Week in Kensington, London in October 2024 under the inspiring mentorship of Soboye.

The Soboye Reimagined and Abstract Botanical (Africa) projects provided MA students with the opportunity to work on a live brief in collaboration with visiting designer and stylist, Samson Soboye. WSA Fashion and Textile students reimagined Soboye’s signature aesthetic of hypnotic, heritage African prints translated into sharp, sartorial suits that would look good on a prancing, prowling Mick Jagger, Rege Jan Page or Dan Stevens. Soboye encouraged the students to experiment and deploy advanced creative garment cutting techniques to achieve stunning garments with zero-waste that looked swell from all angles.

Textile students explored contemporary and heritage African textile print and colour contrasts, resulting in arresting, vibrant, graphic prints.

This exciting collaboration was taken a stage further when the students mixed up tartan with the traditional textiles of Africa for Wednesday's interim degree show.

The result of this cross-cultural experiment was irresistible. Tartans clashed with graphic, colourful African prints looked like the ideal fashion and cultural mash up. All the more impressive then, that the students are just four months into their studies for the one year MA in Fashion and Textiles at WSA.

Whatever will they do next?

Report Alison Jane Reid, Editor, The Luminaries Magazine

Copyright Alison Jane Reid/The Luminaries Magazine. All Rights Reserved. No copying or reproduction in any format without written agreement and royalty payment. Catwalk pictures of the WSA Fashion Show, Courtesy of Winchester School of Art, Copyright, All Rights Reserved.

To Discover more about Fashion and Textile Degree Courses and the MA in Fashion and Textiles at WSA, Visit the website. Winchester School of Art.

Copyright Alison Jane Reid/The Luminaries Magazine April 2025. All Rights Reserved. No copying, reproduction of Ai Usage Whatsoever. Don't Steal the Intellectual Work and Property of Writers, Journalists and Artists.

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