University of Westminster BA 2026

Open­ing image En Zhi Khoo Tai­lored through time.

Inher­it­ed mem­o­ries, fleet­ing ges­tures, for­got­ten his­to­ries, sub­cul­tures, rit­u­als, land­scapes and notions of home all sur­faced in this year’s Uni­ver­si­ty of West­min­ster BA Grad­u­ate Show. Across wom­enswear and menswear, design­ers drew on per­son­al his­to­ries, cul­tur­al ref­er­ences and every­day obser­va­tions to cre­ate col­lec­tions that felt thought­ful, indi­vid­ual and assured. Rather than fol­low­ing a sin­gle mood or aes­thet­ic, the work reflect­ed a broad range of per­spec­tives, each expressed with con­fi­dence and conviction.

Qihui Ye Ensem­bles

Chal­leng­ing con­ven­tion­al notions of mas­cu­line iden­ti­ty through a restrained and pre­cise visu­al lan­guage, Qihui cre­ates a sin­gu­lar, sleek, con­tem­po­rary col­lec­tion. Draw­ing inspi­ra­tion from the ele­gance of 50s and 60s style icons such as Grace Kel­ly and Jack­ie Kennedy, he also ref­er­ences con­tem­po­rary fur­ni­ture and inte­ri­or design. This thought­ful, refined and sub­ver­sive state­ment holds many sub­tle surprises. 

Leather, tech­ni­cal fab­rics and fine engi­neered knits are con­trast­ed with hand­wo­ven cuffs, flo­ral prints lay­ered over met­al chains and glass ban­gles. Bags re-inter­pret the pro­por­tions and mate­ri­als of tra­di­tion­al lap­top cas­es trans­form­ing them into infi­nite­ly cov­etable, gen­der-neu­tral acces­sories to com­plete this unique statement.

Aliyah Dankwah In Ten­sion

Inves­ti­gat­ing the bal­ance between struc­ture and flu­id­i­ty, Aliyah Dankwah’s strik­ing wom­enswear draws many ref­er­ences from her her­itage – par­tic­u­lar­ly the Ghana­ian smock, which has informed the cre­ation of this sculp­tur­al, con­tem­po­rary wom­enswear col­lec­tion. Clear, bold blocks of colour reflect Ghana­ian sen­si­bil­i­ties, where tones stand side by side pro­vid­ing dra­ma and contrast. 

The loom and the weav­ing process have influ­enced the uncon­ven­tion­al lay­ered sil­hou­ettes. Lon­don life pro­vides an excit­ing cul­tur­al clash, with struc­tured out­er­wear non­cha­lant­ly worn, and soft­ened with sup­ple leather ties, reflect­ing co-exis­tence and connection.

Leqi Zeng In Between Gestures

Cel­e­brat­ing imper­fec­tion and the unex­pect­ed, Leqi Zeng’s refined and thought­ful wom­enswear is a study of effort­less dis­or­der. The over­sized, the undone and the unin­ten­tion­al is trans­formed into relaxed yet pow­er­ful con­tem­po­rary ele­gance. Leqi’s keen obser­va­tions of women in dai­ly life, high­light fleet­ing moments such as skirts lift­ed by a breeze, over­sized coats with exposed lin­ings, bro­ken heels, cropped trousers and the char­ac­ter of worn leather. Trans­lat­ing the mun­dane, her clever, mod­ern pieces are shaped through move­ment, imbal­ance, and per­son­al adjust­ments. Moments shaped not by depar­ture or arrival, but by what hap­pens in between. 

Rachael Ade­goke Bridg­ing Aso

Rachael Ade­goke fus­es the vibrant cul­ture and mate­r­i­al lan­guage of her Niger­ian her­itage with the tai­lor­ing codes of British menswear tai­lor­ing in this excit­ing col­lec­tion. Cre­at­ing a fresh dia­logue around Black dandy­ism, Rachael references 

Con­tem­po­rary Niger­ian Art and archival por­traits of folk attire con­trast­ing these against relaxed British ‘Hen­ley Regat­ta’ suiting. 

Inspired by Niger­ian folk tales that guide, com­fort and fright­en, cul­tur­al expres­sion is trans­lat­ed through lay­ered, tac­tile expres­sion into pared back, infi­nite­ly wear­able looks. Ref­er­enc­ing the work of Ben Enwon­wu and the Zaria Art Soci­ety, Rachel cre­ates cus­tom bead­ed lace embell­ish­ments and sil­hou­ettes that echo the rhythm and com­plex­i­ty of mid-cen­tu­ry Niger­ian Art. 

Dis­card­ed mate­ri­als are trans­formed through crafts­man­ship and care into cov­etable leather bags cre­at­ing the final dynam­ic, cross-cul­tur­al link between Lon­don and Lagos. 

Alex Lyons Mod­ern Ritual

Cap­ti­vat­ed by Japan­ese Samu­rai tra­di­tions, Alex Lyons’ cre­ative menswear reflects an imag­ined jour­ney through the path to mas­tery. Re-inter­pret­ing clas­sic menswear sil­hou­ettes through pleat­ing and rep­e­ti­tion, his young Samu­rai muse moves for­ward in his progress, with each stage depict­ed in a sin­gu­lar, con­sid­ered look. Vol­ume is explored in many ways, with extrav­a­gant shapes tem­pered with oth­ers reflect­ing con­trol and discipline. 

Oth­er influ­en­tial ref­er­ences include the post­mod­ern eclec­ti­cism of the Amer­i­can artist, Willie Cole. Util­is­ing many donat­ed and dead­stock fab­rics, sus­tain­abil­i­ty is con­sid­ered as a moral oblig­a­tion. The jour­ney to progress involves rit­u­al, ten­sion and dis­ci­pline, and Alex trans­lates these tri­als into an exper­i­men­tal, imag­i­na­tive and con­tem­po­rary statement.

Geor­gia Ten­nant The Ento­mol­o­gists

Inspired by the mag­ic and intri­ca­cies of ento­mol­o­gy, Giorgia’s love of the nat­ur­al world is long stand­ing and deep-root­ed in her psy­che. In this beau­ti­ful, quirk­i­ly cool but uncom­pro­mis­ing col­lec­tion, each ele­ment has been metic­u­lous­ly con­sid­ered with an abid­ing respect for the impact on the plan­et. Nat­ur­al fab­rics include donat­ed tweed, spun from Shet­land wool and woven in Georgia’s home town of Haw­ick, Scotland. 

Clever, but­ton-off waist­bands can be inter­changed across looks, allow­ing the wear­er to trans­form and evolve as they wish. All fab­rics, threads and but­tons are com­plete­ly nat­ur­al, and so the col­lec­tion is ful­ly com­postable. Left­over scraps have been reimag­ined into acces­sories to min­imise waste. Del­i­cate, hand-dyed colour is derived only from plant-based sources, echo­ing the soft, shift­ing light of the wild outdoors.

Kane Chan Vice City 

Inspired by clas­sic crime cin­e­ma from Hong Kong, Kane Chan uses the anti-hero as his start­ing point for a unique and quirky take on menswear. Trans­lat­ing the often graph­ic ‘vio­lence aes­thet­ic’ from films dat­ed between 1980 and 2010, Kane con­sid­ers both sides of the relent­less con­flict depict­ed between police and street gang­sters. The dra­ma and destruc­tion depict­ed in the films is reflect­ed in the frac­tured and inten­tion­al­ly incom­plete gar­ments. Decon­struct­ed pow­er sil­hou­ettes are jux­ta­posed against louche gang­ster style. 

Chaos and con­flict are trans­lat­ed into sin­gu­lar looks and the after­math of vio­lence is seen through dishev­elled lay­ers, water drenched prints, and rifle laser-beam motifs.

Sumi Kim Cut by Light

The atmos­pher­ic play of nat­ur­al light is the major inspi­ra­tion for this beau­ti­ful, accom­plished wom­enswear col­lec­tion from Sumi Kim. Rein­vent­ing a gold­en age of glam­our for mod­ern times, Sumi’s pieces focus on the moment light breaks through a win­dow and enters an inte­ri­or space. Lin­ear rays of sun­light are trans­lat­ed through sharp seam place­ment and con­trolled sil­hou­ettes, while soft gra­di­ents and flu­id drape reflect the dif­fused move­ment of light across surfaces.

Through a refined use of print, Sumi cre­ates hazy, tran­sient effects that bal­ance soft­ness with pre­ci­sion. Crisp seams con­trast with flu­id forms, while inven­tive bias-cut satin and draped sil­hou­ettes com­bine del­i­ca­cy with struc­ture. The col­lec­tion explores clar­i­ty, atmos­phere and move­ment through the inter­ac­tion of light, fab­ric and construction.

Tom Fee ORDER Per­mits Freedom

Tom Fee’s menswear col­lec­tion is an invi­ta­tion into his per­son­al rela­tion­ship with ORDER through the frame­work of a jour­ney tak­en at night. Open­ing with dark­ness and con­ceal­ment, the six looks are a tra­jec­to­ry from the rigid, opaque and pro­tec­tive towards trans­par­ent and exposed. Mov­ing through dark to light, restrict­ed yet nuanced shades of black, blue and white are high­light­ed with the con­sid­ered use of reflec­tive details.

Deeply inspired by the work and phi­los­o­phy of Agnes Mar­tin and the repet­i­tive struc­tures of tech­no music, the col­lec­tion func­tions as an explo­ration of rou­tine, reg­u­la­tion and self-pre­sen­ta­tion. Tom inter­ro­gates how order and con­trol can oper­ate as tools for free­dom, along­side how mask­ing and con­ceal­ment trans­form towards vis­i­bil­i­ty, accep­tance and release.

En Zhi Khoo Tai­lored through time.

En Zhi Khoo’s beau­ti­ful wom­enswear col­lec­tion explores many facets of iden­ti­ty, and how the past informs both the present and the future. Using archival and cur­rent pho­tographs, En Zhi has stud­ied how cul­tur­al traces con­tin­ue through the thread of time, how ges­tures and sil­hou­ettes remain, and yet evolve. 

His­to­ry is some­thing still lived and worn. Informed by struc­tured menswear codes, she cre­ates del­i­cate, lay­ered and flu­id pieces in the soft­est shades of pink, white and sil­ver, punc­tu­at­ed with char­coal grey. Iden­ti­ty is not fixed, and the col­lec­tion reflects a meet­ing point, shaped through mem­o­ry, lay­er­ing and con­stant evolution.

Flo­rence Kelk Whall Tour de Couleur

Archive images of ear­ly Tour de France events inspire Flo­rence Kelk Whall’s delight­ful, light-heart­ed menswear col­lec­tion. Rein­vent­ing vin­tage cycling dress, the col­lec­tion cap­tures the charm of the orig­i­nals, trans­lat­ing key fea­tures into quirky and play­ful mod­ern pieces. Dead­stock fab­rics have been trans­formed through lay­er­ing, print and soft­ened fin­ish­es to evoke gar­ments that have been worn, repaired and passed through time. 

Fad­ed shades of stone, cream and earthy neu­trals are high­light­ed with flash­es of pink and sun-bleached yellow. 

Inspired by the vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty and endurance of the ear­ly rid­ers, Flo­rence bal­ances func­tion with a mis­chie­vous re-work­ing of details such as clas­sic stripes, race let­ter­ing and ‘King of the Moun­tain’ pol­ka dots, evok­ing the char­ac­ter and spir­it of the pioneers. 

Chien­jui Tseng The Poet­ry of Spaces

Chien­jui Tseng’s com­plex and eclec­tic wom­enswear is pri­mar­i­ly inspired by the three dif­fer­ent homes she remem­bers. Her deeply per­son­al response to mem­o­ry and visions of home, reveals her love of tex­tiles and mate­r­i­al hybridi­s­a­tion. Geo­met­ric sil­hou­ettes are explored through drap­ing, nego­ti­at­ing a bal­ance between restrained con­struc­tion and rich­ly lay­ered, con­struct­ed fabrics.

Informed by an intern­ship on Sav­ile Row, Chien­jui cel­e­brates the dis­ci­pline of tai­lor­ing, but dra­mat­i­cal­ly con­trasts this with her inven­tive, hand-craft­ed tex­tiles. The Amer­i­can artist, James Castle’s work using dis­card­ed and found mate­ri­als is also a major inspi­ra­tion. Work­ing only with donat­ed and vin­tage fab­rics, Chien­jui aims to estab­lish a con­nec­tion between cloth­ing and spaces, striv­ing to cre­ate a dia­logue between mem­o­ry and mat­ter, res­i­dence and move­ment – con­stant­ly re-defin­ing space. 

Oliv­er Orr Spir­it Ditch

High­light­ing the beau­ty in the mun­dane, and the dis­tinc­tive with­in the ordi­nary, Oliv­er Orr’s wom­enswear explores human quirks and char­ac­ter, with inspi­ra­tion drawn from the wardrobes of per­son­al friends and the flux of city dwellers. Youth­ful eclec­ti­cism and awk­ward­ness are cel­e­brat­ed with­in high­ly indi­vid­ual looks, with the inte­ri­ors of gar­ments exposed as exteriors. 

Each look is inspired by a par­tic­u­lar muse, embody­ing the unique dis­po­si­tion of the wear­er.  Den­si­ty and fragili­ty are inter­ro­gat­ed using quilt­ing as a bridge between these weights. Inten­tion­al cut-outs, exper­i­men­tal cut­ting, lay­er­ing and delib­er­ate mis-match­ing remain a fun­da­men­tal thread throughout. 

Kun Luo Remain­ing

Embrac­ing imper­fec­tion and con­ti­nu­ity over con­stant replace­ment, Kun Luo’s low key, youth­ful menswear favours cool over curat­ed. Through mate­r­i­al exper­i­men­ta­tion Kun plays with the vis­i­ble traces of time and use, cre­at­ing sun-fad­ed sur­faces, nee­dle-punched wool, singed knitwear and recon­struct­ed den­im, for a delib­er­ate­ly mis-matched mod­ern wardrobe. 

Worn gar­ments evoke an emo­tion­al attach­ment. Tai­lored pieces are craft­ed from a weath­ered boat sail. Root­ed in obser­va­tions of teenage street cul­ture, the col­lec­tion reflects awk­ward­ness, rebel­lion and attach­ment — where cloth­ing becomes a way of nav­i­gat­ing and con­struct­ing identity.

Remain­ing begins with what is already there.

Hae­un Stem­ple Almost Belong­ing

Inspired by the emo­tion­al and phys­i­cal expe­ri­ence of nav­i­gat­ing unfa­mil­iar spaces, Hae­un Stemple’s accom­plished menswear col­lec­tion reflects the tem­po­rary insta­bil­i­ty and move­ment of life in tran­si­tion. The dis­placed trav­eller con­stant­ly adapts, but nev­er ful­ly belongs. These emo­tions are trans­lat­ed through inten­tion­al mis­aligned pat­tern cut­ting, trans­formable gar­ment fea­tures and glitch-inspired puff prints. The detail­ing of the often-com­plex pieces visu­al­ly doc­u­ment errors, amend­ments, revi­sion and reflec­tion. Lay­ered con­struc­tions allow for shift­ing sil­hou­ettes, trans­lat­ing the expe­ri­ence of dis­place­ment into flu­id, per­son­al expression.

Niky­la Nativi­dad Mabuhay (To live)

This exu­ber­ant, per­son­al and joy­ful col­lec­tion reflects Niky­la Natividad’s child­hood mem­o­ries amongst the beau­ti­ful, lush flo­ra of the Philip­pines. Con­trast­ing shapes from both his­tor­i­cal and mod­ern cul­tur­al sil­hou­ettes inform relaxed mod­ern pieces, each look depict­ing the dis­tinct per­son­al­i­ty of a fam­i­ly member. 

Using pho­to­graph­ic ref­er­ences of an idyl­lic start in a rur­al province, Niky­la cel­e­brates her her­itage with kalei­do­scop­ic colour. 

Mind­ful of the inher­ent resource­ful­ness of Fil­ipino cul­ture, Niky­la has used most­ly donat­ed and dead­stock fab­ric. She har­ness­es local craft, util­is­ing the tra­di­tion­al piña fab­ric, trans­form­ing the clas­sic woven Bay­ong bag into a beau­ti­ful, extrav­a­gant­ly vibrant, mod­ern tote. 

Expres­sive, hand-drawn pat­tern is inspired by the famous ‘Sabel’ paint­ing by Philip­pine Nation­al Artist, Beni­dic­to Cabr­era. Sump­tu­ous, hand-craft­ed tex­tures lay­er fur­ther rich­ness into this delight­ful, heady mix. 

Olly Dye Hunter

Inspired by armoured sil­hou­ettes, the mil­i­tary and the medieval, Olly Dye cre­ates a tru­ly strik­ing col­lec­tion, using leather and hair to explore notions of shield­ing and self-pro­tec­tion. Tones of black, blonde and blue are the back­drop for the dec­o­ra­tive dra­ma of copi­ous hair strands. Bright, flow­ing hair becomes a metaphor for con­fi­dence and self-assur­ance — cel­e­brat­ed with strength and gus­to. Plait­ed, manip­u­lat­ed, twist­ed and flow­ing strands adorn smooth, neat leather pieces. 

Met­al chains and studs hark back to a bygone age to com­plete this intrigu­ing and empow­er­ing statement. 

Olivia Grace Robin­son I saw the innards of the fruit machine.

Olivia Robin­son soft­ens menswear with intri­cate bias cut­ting, devel­oped back to basics. Slapped with sym­bols, exploit­ing nos­tal­gia by lean­ing into fears and stereo­types, sat­u­rat­ing these on fine silk. Ele­vat­ing work­wear, cel­e­brat­ing pride and sym­bol­ic resis­tance. Bring­ing up and bring­ing down. Hid­ing excel­lence in nor­mal­i­ty, rais­ing nor­mal­i­ty to excellence. 

Per­son­al her­itage is hon­oured with the use of spon­sored wools from York­shire mills, and skills are hon­oured through a col­lab­o­ra­tion with Mum­bai shoe­mak­ers. Leav­ing to feel what it is like to return. Labour and love. Con­tra­dic­tion and nuance. Silk and scraps. Sil­ver and green. Class dys­mor­phia and desire. Har­mo­ny in dis­so­nance. Push and pull. The per­fect cup of tea and the con­stant search for balance. 

Lon­don and Barnsley. 

“I saw the innards of the fruit machine and all I got was this lousy T shirt”.

Oluc­ci Oko Rhythms beneath the cloth.

The rich­ly lay­ered and colour­ful tra­di­tions of Niger­ian cul­ture are cen­tral to Oluc­ci Oko’s iden­ti­ty and her vibrant wom­enswear. Draw­ing on her her­itage and the visu­al lan­guage of fam­i­ly por­traits and gar­ments, Oluc­ci also ref­er­ences the expres­sive move­ment of dance and cer­e­mo­ni­al rituals. 

Zero-waste drap­ing and use of dead­stock fab­rics are key. Sump­tu­ous colour and indi­vid­ual prints fea­ture through­out the col­lec­tion, in warm, opu­lent earth and jew­el tones. Lux­u­ri­ous tex­tiles are lay­ered with tac­tile tex­tures adorn­ing the body; fring­ing, wrap­ping, and weav­ing. State­ment jew­ellery cre­at­ed from re-pur­posed fab­ric and leather com­pletes this won­der­ful­ly har­mo­nious, con­tem­po­rary line up.

Elise Cullen So, you think you’re a cowboy?

Rework­ing the mythol­o­gy of the Amer­i­can West through a con­tem­po­rary, crit­i­cal lens, Elise Cullen push­es back against the roman­ti­cised image of cow­boy cul­ture and the per­for­mance of West­ern iden­ti­ty in her rich­ly colour­ful, desir­able menswear. 

Play­ful­ly call­ing out those who adopt the aes­thet­ic with­out any lived con­nec­tion, she ques­tions ideas of authen­tic­i­ty and sto­ry­telling in fash­ion. Ground­ed in sus­tain­abil­i­ty, each intri­cate­ly detailed and thought­ful look is cre­at­ed from sec­ond-hand fab­rics or dead­stock den­im. Play­ful and exper­i­men­tal tech­niques include a nat­u­ral­ly rust-dyed look that intro­duces themes of wear, decay, and inven­tive resourcefulness. 

WITH THANKS,

Ahluwalia, All Saints, British Fash­ion Coun­cil, Burber­ry, Drakes, Dug­dale, Dun­hill, Fash­ionary, Indi­tex, JW Ander­son, Joel & Sons, Laven­ham, Leathersellers, M&ES Lon­don, McQueen, Rapha, Simone Rocha, Sweaty Bet­ty,  Vivien of Holloway.

Prof. Peter Bon­field, Prof. Cather­ine Dormer, Vir­ginia Grose, Car­o­line Cur­tis, Troy Fearne, Pao­lo Carzana, Stephanie Coop­er, Sarah Mower.