Graduate Fashion Week 2025 Unveils a Bold New Vision
In a world where fashion often feels like déjà vu, Graduate Fashion Week 2025 delivered an electrifying reminder of what fresh talent can achieve. From catwalks charged with cultural commentary to collaborative photoshoots orchestrated by student-led teams, this year’s showcase transcended expectations, truly cementing its status as one of the world’s largest platform for emerging fashion talent.
Where Talent Meets Tenacity
Hosted at the iconic Truman Brewery in London, GFW25 ran from 13th to 16th June, drawing over 20,000 guests, 200 VIP judges, and representatives from more than 100 universities worldwide. The week’s hallmark? A celebratory collision of innovation, identity, and audacious design, spanning over 3500 graduate collections across 26 fashion disciplines.
The flagship Talent of Tomorrow 2025 campaign set the tone. This professional shoot was not just for students, but by students. Fifty-four emerging designers collaborated with 49 creatives across photography, art direction, styling, hair, and makeup, mentored by leading industry figures like Grace Hodgson and Emma Calder. What emerged were visual narratives that ranged from sustainable statements to avant-garde silhouettes—each image a defiant declaration that the future of fashion is diverse, collaborative, and unfiltered.
Award-Winning Voices and Visionaries
Across four days, standout talent was recognised with prestigious awards, affirming the depth and purpose behind each graduate’s journey.
We were introduced to Brodie Anderson from Nottingham Trent University, who received the Considered Fashion Award for a collection praised for its meticulous research and material experimentation. Poppy Pritchard-Booth from Kingston University wowed with a nostalgic yet dynamic Fashion Portfolio Award inspired by her mum’s festival-era film photos. Methulie Jayawickrama from Northumbria University won the Hilary Alexander Sustainable Trailblazer Award for her Sri Lankan handloomed collection—a powerful counterpoint to fast fashion. Meanwhile, Isabella Rawlinson-Matthew from De Montfort University became a dual award-winner, receiving both the Inclusive Fashion Award and Project Pitch: Businesses of Tomorrow—proving that advocacy and entrepreneurship are not mutually exclusive.
Menswear’s Moment
In a historic first, GFW25 dedicated a full show to Menswear, spotlighting designers unafraid to dismantle conventions in tailoring, streetwear, and gender fluidity. The showcase was a revelation—where cultural nuance met editorial edge. Judged by a panel that included British GQ’s Heidi Quill and designer Nicholas Daley, it heralded the rise of a generation that’s reshaping menswear with heart and grit.
The Grand Finale: A Gala of Icons in the Making
The week crescendoed with the Best of GFW Gala, a curated finale that fused the strongest collections into one mesmerising catwalk. The night’s top honour, the Best of GFW Award, was presented to Sarah Ajayi from Manchester Metropolitan University, by none other than Julien Macdonald. Her wearable yet visionary garments exemplified commercial sophistication grounded in artistic depth.
A Global Creative Family
GFW is more than a showcase—it’s a global incubator. Through its international wing, GFWi, the event hosted fashion schools from across the world, opening the stage for bold cross-cultural exchanges and critical discourse around the future of fashion education.
In a time where fashion often fumbles with questions of sustainability, inclusivity, and authenticity, GFW25 offered answers—not just in garments, but in the minds and missions of its graduates.
Why It Matters
What GFW25 reaffirmed is this: the next era of fashion will not be dictated from boardrooms—it will be imagined in classrooms, stitched in student halls, and photographed in Shoreditch lofts. It will be deeply personal, loudly political, and gloriously experimental.
At OSHUN, we celebrate creators who dare to craft the future. And this June, we found them—not in ateliers, but under the graduate spotlight. The talent is not just coming… it’s already here.