Winchester Fashion Week kicks off with a colourful start

Winchester Fashion Week kicks off with a colourful start

1:52pm Tuesday 1st April 2014 in Hampshire Business By Lauren Howard, Reporter

THE annual Winchester fashion week kicked off with a bang today seeing some of the university's finest showcase their work.

Fashion students armed with bags, shoes, capes, and colours galore gathered at the High Street to display their own designs at L K Bennett.

The mannequins, that until this morning were dressed in monochrome dresses and brightly coloured sandals, became the centre pieces for the students' projects exhibiting their talents.

Manager at L K Bennett, Helen Waluga, said: 'This is our second year doing it. I've worked quite closely with the University giving talks on my career so it's nice to see the students using our shop to showcase their work. I'm really looking forward to the catwalk on Saturday night; I think it's going to be great fun.'

Betty Wu, 23, who's studying for a masters in fashion design, said: 'I did my project about juxtaposition so the inspiration for one of my pieces is cloudy seaside meets glass. I want to give people a pure vision and I always worked with natural material. I'm excited about Saturday where you can see some of my designs.'

Heart FM played music while Boots saleswomen handed out freebies from No7 offering make-up hints and tips.

Catherine Turness, Winchester Business Improvement District (BID) manager, said: 'I'm excited that today we're launching and that the public get the chance to win tickets for the catwalk on Saturday.

'I'm also looking forward to giving the students the opportunity to showcase their work in such a great place as L K Bennett as they've got such a wonderfully big window. It's just great that these up and coming young people can exhibit their work to the public.'