Cheltenham Education Partnership Young Designers Showcase 2026

On Wednesday 3rd June, Natalie, Seikemi, Artemis and Jess showcased the garments they had created for the Young Designers project, run by the Cheltenham Education Partnership in conjunction with local organisation Lives Of Colour.

They were asked to take inspiration from an African flower and combine this with an element of British fashion, whilst also incorporating African print fabric and pre-loved woollen fabrics (ie shrunken jumpers!) into their designs.

The girls rose to the challenge of designing to this very diverse brief and let themselves be guided by the properties of the materials as well as the floral forms and colours.

Natalie and Seikemi (LC3) took inspiration from the Yellow Trumpet Flower. They constructed a corset-style bodice and embellished this with ruffles made from their African print fabric. The skirt echoes the trumpet shape of the flower, comprising a draped underskirt and wired petals made from knitwear and African cloth. A headpiece inspired by Anne Boleyn provided their British element.

Artemis and Jess chose the African Tulip Tree Flower and were inspired by the various shades of red seen in this flower, along with its rounded petals with frilled edges. They leant into that very British garment – a woolly jumper – choosing to make knitwear the focus of their design, manipulating this using gathers and wires to produce structure and form. They used their African fabric to create an impactful train and headpiece.

The students demonstrated superb teamwork, spending many additional hours in Textiles to realise their ideas. They learnt a lot about how to ‘engineer’ a costume and work with the properties of the materials at their disposal, and showed an impressive ability to adapt their ideas and engage in creative problem-solving during the course of this project!

Both outfits looked great at the fashion show, where the girls enjoyed meeting students from other Cheltenham schools and celebrating everyone’s fabulous work!

Miss Brandon, Teacher of Textiles