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

Taneshe Oliver-Lodge, a former Harper’s Bazaar scholarship winner, has taken 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.

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Her work is inspired by her Jamaican heritage and the huge impact the Windrush generation had on rebuilding the UK post-World War Two.

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

Courtesy of Taneshe

“Our heritage was ingrained in the decoration of our home. It gave us a sense of both belonging and difference – of love, respect, and pride.”

The young designer’s homage can be seen through her photographs, which reenact how the Windrush generation would dress when they arrived in their Sunday best outfits.

“To have won 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 abilities as a designer to have been recognised by industry experts. I think winning the award was not only a testament to my hard work but also to my tutor, technical and pattern cutting tutor. I was really surprised and wasn’t expecting to have been shortlisted for three awards.”

Courtesy of Taneshe

Of course, this is just the beginning for the talented youngster, who has high hopes for her career within the fashion industry.

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

To discover more about Taneshe’s work, head this way.