"You don’t meet too many young designers like Hazim Bangwar. He’s just about to send his graduate collection down the runway, to a room full of fellow students, media, sponsors and oh-so-proud parents. Not to mention, he has also just signed a contract in LA to become a superstar singer, but tonight, even he has to agree; the focus is on him and his five fellow American InterContinental University graduates, as they debut their final collections. The room itself is a Grade I listed building, a church; seats line a runway stretching across where an alter once lay.
Being ushered backstage, into a room full of excitement, chatter and rails of month’s worth of labour, I gain a few minutes to speak with the students about their collections. “People always expect designers to be influenced by other designers, but that never happened to me. I was just reading a book. I love story telling,” Bangwar begins. His collection is a futuristic take on an Icelandic volcano, also known as Eyjafjallajokull, meshed with one of his favourite books, King Arthur.
The collection coils around the body in swoops of white leather and knitted wool, hanging loosely away from the skin, while silver netting forms science fiction like leggings, sleeves and body suits to layer underneath. The contours of the garments are sprayed with silver paint, evoking the rust that would form on a Knight’s armour, “I don’t like simplicity. I’m dramatic as a person. I wanted it like, BAM, in your face!”"
