Emily Spencer’s collection explores and raises the critical issue, ‘are we building too much?’. Taking inspiration from her childhood housing estate and seeing many new houses being built and squashed into the small greenspace left throughout the estate. From housing estates expanding and high-rise buildings appearing all over city centres, Emily began to question whether this could lead to a serious environmental issue.

During the design process, Emily experiments with various materials and media to mark-make and collage, which help to create garment shapes and silhouettes. Creating a womenswear collection which has a modern yet darker undertone is something that is carried through all Emily’s collections. Emily also shares a passion for art outside of her studies which she wanted to bring into her final collection. Unique, bold and hand-generated paintings are what makes Emily’s collection stand out. Exciting, abstract prints and paintings are seen throughout all her work, along which statement fabrics such as vegan leather and strong canvas.

Once silhouettes have been created, Emily begins to pattern cut and toile the garment shapes which allow her to experiment and print place her art-based prints, both through sampling and digital rendering. Pattern cutting and finishing Emily’s collection is something which she loves to create. Creating unique clothing which showcases Emily’s personality, style, as well as sharing issues she is passionate about—resulting in garments which share influential art and messages.