Graduate Fashion Foundation hails success of TikTok residency

By

Barbara Santamaria

Published
Jul 22, 2020

Graduate Fashion Foundation and TikTok have concluded their two-week manufacturing residency in Fashion Enter’s factory in North London.

58 fashion design graduates from across the UK were invited to participate in the initiative, which sought to support emerging designers’ careers by offering them an opportunity to access practical industry experience and learn new skills.

Students were asked to design and manufacture TikTok’s first-ever range of European merchandise. During the two-week project, they learnt about design for manufacturing, grading and realising designs into commercial patterns, production lines and quality control. Leading designers including Henry Holland provided mentoring alongside GFF patrons and TikTok creators.

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Holland, designer and global ambassador for GFF said: “I’m so impressed by what the graduates have achieved in the last two weeks. They’ve done their own original prints, some have made up to 10 garments, one girl made 20 bags and the tenacity and the drive of these young people is insane.”

All winning graduates who attended the residency received a competition prize of £500 and documented their design and manufacturing process to share their experience on TikTok. 

GFF, which organises the Graduate Fashion Week, said that the limited-edition designs will be gifted to their Creator and VIP community.

Cassandra Russell, Brand Partnerships, Fashion & Retail at TikTok explained: “We’re sending these out to a combination of influencers and our most VIP clients, so it’ll be the head of marketing for Burberry getting one of these items, and lots of other fashion houses too.”

Commenting on the project, Hilary Alexander from the Graduate Fashion Foundation said: “I’m incredibly impressed with the standards and the variety of designs and although in some cases they used a logo or the TikTok colours, it’s not typical logo merchandise, it’s new and innovative and the spirit of TikTok.”

The social media platform plans to create a commercial capsule collection made up of selected designs for further gifting to staff and partners across Europe.