Taneshe Oliver-Lodge wins Fashion Concept Award at Graduate Fashion Week

Taneshe Oliver-Lodge, an ex Harper’s Bazaar The scholarship winner took home the Fashion Concept Award at Graduate Fashion Week.

Oliver-Lodge, a student at the Cambridge School of Visual and Performing Arts, was actually shortlisted for three coveted accolades for her work, which included the FACE Excellence Award and the Range Plan Award.

This content was imported from Instagram. You may be able to find the same content in a different format, or you can find more information on their website.

Her work is inspired by her Jamaican heritage and the huge impact the Windrush generation had on the rebuilding of the United Kingdom after the Second World War.

“My research and concept development was informed by my family narratives, photos and our material culture – our home and the things that surrounded me throughout my youth,” she told us. “Inspired by curator Michael McMillan’s ‘West Indian Front Room’ at the House Museum, which considered the centrality of the home within the migrant experience, I was drawn to the material culture of my heritage as a young black British woman, whose family migrated from Jamaica to Britain in the 1950s.”

“Our heritage was rooted in the decoration of our home. It gave us a sense of belonging and distinction—of love, respect, and pride.”

The young designer’s tributes can be seen through her photographs, which bring back the way the Windrush generation would have dressed when they arrived in their Sunday best.

“Winning the fashion concept award acknowledges the depth of research and execution of my final collection,” Oliver-Lodge told us. “It also gave me a boost of confidence in my skills as a designer to be recognized by industry experts. I think winning the award was not only a testament to my hard work, but also to my teacher, my technical mentor and to the cutting of models. I was really surprised and I didn’t expect to be shortlisted for three awards.”

Courtesy of Taneshe

Of course, this is just the beginning for the talented young lady, who has high hopes for her career in the fashion industry.

“In the next year I would like to improve my aesthetic and style as a designer and launch a slow-paced, custom-made brand ‘Taneshe’. In the long term, I would like to be on the path to being a fashion director while I’m growing my own label – and I’d like to continue mentoring university students in the creative arts to share my knowledge and encourage them to pursue a career within the industry.”

To find out more about Tanesh’s work, head this way.