Masculinity, the relationship between father and son and the comfort men find in communities are explored by menswear designer Emily Dunnett’s Graduate Collection, Chip Off the Old Block. This six look capsule collection, features leather work, tailoring, sportswear elements and graphic screen printing techniques as it follows a young boy’s idolisation of his dad, and friendships forged through football, working men’s clubs and motorbikes.

Her development collection, Get Your Motor Runnin’, draws on Dunnett’s memories of her own father “in lockdown, I was surrounded by my dad’s old bike magazines from the 1980’s which had such dynamic front covers. He always in the garage working on his motorbikes whilst I was growing up”. The collection reimagines silhouettes found in biker wear as contemporary sportswear in a mixture of high performance pieces as well more commercial athleisure items.

Dunnett’s multimedia approach to design begins by using photography to build a narrative, often including candid street photography of real people doing real things. For her graduate collection, Tom Wood’s photobook “Man” provided an important reference in the mundane and everyday life. She uses this storytelling to produce highly detailed and well considered garments, where traditional tailoring styles might be merged with sportswear elements, graphic print and ergonomic design.

During her placement year, Dunnett worked at Fyodor Golan working on basic pattern adaptions, pattern tracing, cutting fabric, hand sewing, quality control and fabric sourcing. She has also worked at London Fashion Week SS19, Resort SS20 and London Fashion Week Festival. She was shortlisted for the Graduate Fashion Week 2020 Sportswear and leisurewear designer, presenting her work to industry specialists from WGSN and Wonderland Magazine. She has been featured on SHOWstudio’s class of 2020 feature, the British Fashion Council’s graduate preview 2020 and was selected by the Graduate Fashion Foundation (GFF) to have a winning design developed and manufactured for TIKTOK EU merchandising.