Hammerson Fashion Innovation Award winner The Live Issue by Katie Burkes and Susie O’Brien, UCA Epsom
Katie Burkes and Susie O’Brien from UCA Epsom University Fashion Promotion and Imaging won the by Hammerson Fashion Innovation Award, which was presented to the duo at the GFW gala by Lawrence Hutchings from Hammerson and Harold Tillman. The award was judged by Martin Raymond of The Future Laboratory, Gary Aspden from adidas and designer William Tempest, who collectively noted that Katie and Susie’s ‘live magazine’ project was chosen ‘because it was an excellent and innovative overall concept – live at a time when everything else is online.’
The duo’s project was about fashion forecasting and looking to the future of fashion magazines, explaining that many magazines such as fashion 156 are purely online and and not actually published – in keeping with current eco issues, being more sustainable to produce a live magazine than to publish one.
‘We created a live magazine, which we produced as an event. Guests were invited to walk into the space and take a journey through the pages of a conventional fashion/art magazine (page by page). We approached up-and-coming designers, graduates, illustrators, unsung heroes in design and film and other creatives within the industry of fashion/art/music and featured them within the space, as an editor would in a publication. In a time where the Internet is becoming more and more a necessity for magazines to go live; we thought of the next stage where magazines could go. We were inspired by companies such as Secret Cinema and Punchdrunk theatre, who encourage their spectators to take a journey for themselves.’
Hammerson Fashion Innovation Award finalists Josephine Weaver & Lewis Chong, UCA Epsom
The two finalists included another double act, Josephine Weaver & Ladi Hicks from UCA Epsom and, also from UCA Epsom, Lewis Chong, whose project is based on augmented reality, developed through ideas and concepts.
Image credits: Live Issue photography by Holly Falconer
