Nancy is from Wood Green in North London and has just completed her degree in fashion at Manchester Metropolitan University, ending with an incredible runway where she showcased her four final looks. These were all intricately handmade drawing on inspirations from both her degree as well as aspects of her life, specifically from women and the female form. She recalls how she ended up doing her work experience in secondary school on set with her godmother who was doing a shoot for Twiggy! Nancy explains how she turned up
on the first day in her Nike tech joggers and became completely mesmerised. With her mum working as a set designer from her early twenties until her late thirties as well as her godmother working in the world of fashion, Nancy has had plenty of female inspiration to push her into following her creative ambitions.
‘Growing up I always struggled academically and I turned to creative skills… it kinda became my superpower… you couldn’t get me out of the studios’
Nancy talks fondly of how she explored her creativity from school up until now and how her final pieces reflect that journey. She talks me through what this looks like, explaining a piece she did for her textile A Level which focused on ‘trapping art’, where you trap fragments of design and interest in work. Nancy looked at her grandad passing and how she could trap different elements of him in netting. Taking this love for textiles further, Nancy also worked in a haberdashery and taught younger students how to sew as well as regenerating clothes, describing it as a way that she could always express herself.
‘It felt like the first thing that ever made sense to me’
Nancy explains how her final pieces were a long time coming with her ideas taking shape a few years ago when she studied at Ravensbourne. Focusing on ‘Exquisite Corpse’ – the game where you draw and fold the paper over to depict a person – Nancy merged her different interests of the female anatomy together. She explained, ‘I looked at how female artists use their bodies as an extension of their art and I absolutely fucking loved it’!
Drawing on ideas such as the female gaze, Nancy treated her final pieces as ‘an ode to all the women who had ever got me [her] here’. With the colour red a main feature in all the pieces, Nancy wanted to symbolise themes of love, beauty, power and autonomy as she explains, ‘to me woman is red’. Nancy wanted it to be really indulgent, using materials like lace and sheers and leather sourcing a lot of materials from markets in London. These pieces act as a time lapse of her life with red thread commonly symbolising fate holding the idea that no matter where you go in life it always brings you back to where you’re supposed to be.
Nancy explains how she has been so inspired by, and collaborated with, so many women doing this course and can’t wait to be influenced by new people and experiences going forward. Nancy is hoping to take her creativity into the kitchen with a culinary course when she moves back to London.
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