By Callum Wright
A Nottingham Trent University student has designed and graduated in the university’s first new gown in more than 30 years.
Georgia Stevenson, 25, entered a contest for current NTU fashion students in which they would design a new look for the graduation gowns, which had been unchanged since 1990.
Georgia, who completed her MA in Fashion and Creative Pattern Cutting, had her design chosen.
It takes inspiration from both the university’s iconic Arkwright building and the coat of arms in NTU’s signature pink colour.
She and all the other students alongside her wore the gown at her graduation ceremony on December 12.
Describing the thought process behind the design, Georgia said: “It took me a while to figure out where to start because I didn’t know much about academic dress itself, so I did a bit of research.
“I started thinking about how I can make NTU’s new gown different, so I started looking at previous uni students who had graduated here and saw the backdrop of the building was the Arkwright building, so I took inspiration from the angles and the curves because it’s such a unique building.”
Georgia described the experience of being able to graduate in her own design alongside her friends as ‘surreal.’
“I didn’t think I’d stand here wearing a gown that I’d designed throughout my whole MA, I didn’t think this would ever happen, I guess Nottingham Trent are great for providing this opportunity,” she said.
Georgia’s family were in attendance for her graduation, and her dad Darren spoke of his pride in what she had designed.
“She’s worked really hard for this, night and day, there’s been a lot of time I’ve come home from work, and she’s still been working,” he said.
“Everything she’s put in she’s deserved it.”
The previous gowns used since 1990 consisted of 24 academic dress designs in the University’s previous brand colours.
Amanda Briggs-Goode, Head of Department for Fashion, Textiles and Knitwear Design at NTU, spoke about the decision to have a student bring a new gown design to life.
“The idea of having a personalized gown is quite a novel one, I think there are a few other institutions, but I think we’re really one of the first forerunners of designing something specifically for us,” she said.
“We worked really closely with registry and Graduate Attire to build a brief that would inspire the students, meet the branding needs and respond to the production issues that Graduate Attire needed to consider when designing a new gown.
“After a short judging process, we interviewed some of the students, went into more depth about their ideas and Georgia was the winner of that competition, she was an absolute joy to work with, very open minded.”
One of the main focuses with the gown was sustainability, with each being made using 30-post consumer recycled plastic bottles and minimal fabric was wasted in the production.
Dave Whitlock, Deputy Academic Registrar at the University, spoke about how a change in gown was needed and how it matches their values.
“I really like the gowns, particularly when they come out the University Hall you see a sea of pink, the last time we did it was in 1990, I think they just needed a bit of a refresh and Georgia did an amazing job,” he said.
“Sustainability is really important for us because it’s one of our strategic themes, embracing sustainability, we’re also recently awarded to be the second most sustainable University in the world.”
