Kingston University’s fashion degree is now ranked third in the world, so Rosanna Greenstreet talks fashion with course director Elinor Renfrew and her star student Josh Read
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Click the image above for a selection of Josh's work
It’s official, Kingston is one of the best places in the world in which to study fashion. This summer saw Business of Fashion, a website for the creative industries which measures colleges by global impact, learning experience and long term value, rate Kingston University’s fashion degree course in the top three – after Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design (CSM) and Bunka Fashion College in Japan.
SURREY JANUARY 2016
“It’s amazing for us,” says Associate Professor Elinor Renfrew, who has been the BA (Hons) fashion course director at the university since 2004. “Fashionista rates us number four, The Guardian’s league table number three and now we’ve this new number three – so it shows that we are consistent.”
Recently, in the press, there has been a debate as to how well fashion colleges prepare students for employment. And, despite its slot at the top of the global charts, Central Saint Martins has come under particular fire from graduates who feel that the college is accepting too many people.
This summer, CSM saw a silent demonstration by almost 100 disgruntled students who had not been chosen for the CSM’s prestigious BA press fashion show. They stood in silence, modelling their designs. Other criticism included the lack of industry links provided by the college and concern over graduate employability.
Elinor Renfrew, Associate Head of Kingston University's Design School
In contrast, Renfrew can be justly proud of the employment record of Kingston graduates.
“We have 90 percent fashion employability and it’s real,” she says. “We work very closely with industry and the whole of our second year is sponsored so the students are used to working with industry, and often they will be taken on for a job at the end. Students go to High Street internationals like Zara, H&M and Gap. We also have graduates at Victoria Beckham, Roland Mouret, Mulberry and Burberry.”
One of Russell Brand’s favourite designers, Joshua Kane, graduated from Kingston in 2007.
“Joshua went to work for Jaeger, Burberry and Paul Smith before setting up his business when he was 30, which is the best way to do it,” says Renfrew. “He has a shop in Spitalfields and a huge following, including Jack Guinness and Made in Chelsea’s Oliver Proudlock who have both modelled for his shows.
“Sophie Hulme’s another success – she’s doing really well with her accessories. She was picked up by Selfridges who wanted to buy her collection. She was offered a job by Marc Jacobs at Louis Vuitton but, because she had funding and orders, she decided to set up her own business in Islington.”
Kingston’s latest success story is Josh Read, a womenswear designer who completed his degree in June. Read won the coveted LVMH Graduate Prize, receiving a year’s contract with the French fashion house Dior in Paris. Renfrew spotted his potential early on.
She says, “He was always very good technically which a lot of students are not. He could ‘make’ – a lot of students can’t because they don’t do needlework at school, so he always had that advantage. Then he became really strong with his illustration, design work and portfolio. In his second year he won a placement in New York with the American label, Brooks Brothers – a brilliant internship because it’s fully paid.”
Read, who is 21, has just started his new job at Dior and, when I catch up with him on the phone, he still can’t believe his luck.
“I’ve just finished my first week and it’s surreal and a bit daunting, but very exciting,” he says. “I am working with the design team and helping them with their research and getting things together for fashion week. I am staying near Trocadero in Paris where I’ve got my own little apartment.”
Kingston University's Josh Read outside the Graduate Fashion Week entrance
It’s a long way from Horsham in West Sussex where Read’s passion for fashion was sparked at an early age in the home he shared with his electrical engineer father, his mum who is a mental health practitioner, two sisters and a brother.
“I’ve just always been in love with fashion and design and the way in which a woman dresses,” he says, “I was really interested in what my sisters and my mum were wearing. My nan had clothes that she had worn when she was young, and it was exciting to look at them and see how they were put together. I was thrilled by the whole experience.”
Read began his degree at Kingston in 2012 and he is very clear as to why he picked the university.
“I fell in love with Kingston because of the links that it had with industry and I loved the relationship that Elinor had with her students. She always remembers where they are going and what they are doing, and she always has everyone’s best interest at heart.”
As Read finished his degree, he was flagged as one to watch in London Graduate Fashion Week and editors raved about his colour block collection.
“I got chosen with eight other students from across London and they did a photoshoot with my orange and navy coat. The coat got picked up by Vogue online and it went a bit crazy and a bit everywhere, which was amazing!” he says.
After his year at Dior, Read plans to do an MA in fashion design and, long term, he would like to head up a design house.
Meanwhile, back in Kingston, Renfrew is helping her new intake of undergraduates to settle in. Unlike CSM, she doesn’t expect to have to deal with a student demo – silent or otherwise.
“It’s how you handle it really,” she says. “We have 38 students and 21 show whereas at St Martins they have many more students and there can be a huge percentage who don’t show. I don’t know how they do it at St Martin’s, but I always have an external panel of about four designers to select the collections (I bring in people like Holly Fulton) and I don’t sit on the panel at all. The students can’t really fault the process and I haven’t had a bad reaction.”
She goes further, “But they have a different kind of feeling at St Martins – students go there because they want to stand out. Our students are more team players, they are not there just for their own publicity.”
That may be so, but it seems that the eminently employable designers that Kingston University produces, such as Joshua Kane, Sophie Hulme and now Josh Read, are attracting publicity and attention for their work whether they court it or not.
You can follow Josh Read on Twitter at @joshyread
For further information about Kingston University’s BA (Hons) fashion course, email:
