Fashion Students bring Springtime to Bentalls Kingston

Bentalls customers looking for a designer treasure of the future should look no further than the scarf department. As part of a joint initiative with Kingston College, BA (Hons) students in Fashion and Textiles have designed ’The Bridge’ –  a debut collection of scarves to be sold exclusively in Bentalls.

The fashion students, all first year students on a brand new course at Kingston College, have been given an exclusive brief to design, hand-print and produce a bespoke range of Spring/Summer accessories, based on the concept of ‘The English Country Garden’ which will be launched and sold in the Bentalls store this Spring. Working in teams and individually, the students will present their market research, inspiration, designs and fabric samples to Bentalls fashion experts later this month.

Ideal as presents, and available in natural and man-made fibres, the scarves will be printed in a limited edition of 6 per design, allowing Bentalls discerning customers seeking an individual style to invest in a unique piece.

Maia Diver, Head of Fashion at Kingston College, says: “It is apt that the fantastic new facilities for our National Diploma in Fashion & Clothing and BA Fashion & Textiles at Anstee House used to house the Bentalls Headquarters.  We are delighted to develop our links with Bentalls further and collaborate with the accessory buying team on this student competition project.”

The degree students were briefed by the Bentalls’ marketing and buying experts and are well underway designing an exclusive range of hand printed scarves made possible by the installation of new state-of-the-art printed textiles equipment at Anstee House.  The winning designer will be determined by the highest number of accessories sold providing an excellent opportunity for the students in the first year of their degree.

Vanessa Frances, Head of Marketing at Bentalls comments: “We are thrilled to be supporting Kingston College for the first year they are running a degree course. Anstee House used to be the Buying Office of Bentalls so we are delighted the building is being used for such a creative purpose. We tailor our commercial input each year depending on the brief to the students and this year we thought it was most realistic to let the customer decide the bestseller rather than us!”

This is the third time Kingston College students have had the opportunity of collaborating with Bentalls. Last year, National Diploma students designed an eco-conscious, commercially viable and also fashionable ‘Bag for Life’ with the winning designs being sold throughout the fashion and accessories departments in Autumn 08, whilst in Spring 07, students were given a brief to design a range of customised t-shirts inspired by the 1960’s and six students saw their designs go on sale in the store’s on-trend Urban Lounge that summer.

As part of Adult Learners’ Week, Kingston College will be holding an Adult Learners’ Open Day on Saturday 9th May 2009, 10.30am to 1.30pm, at Anstee House, fabulous new premises now housing Kingston College’s Fashion, Media and English Language Teaching provision. Anstee House was the former administrative headquarters of Bentalls. For further information on the Adult Learners’ Open Day call 020 8268 3011 or email baps.office@kingston-college.ac.uk.