Grayson's Robes 2023 - Meet the winner!

After an exciting lead-up to the competition, which included a drawing workshop, life-size Grayson cut-outs and a tour of last year's winning robes, this year's Grayson's Robes competition came to a nail-biting end last week, when the final winner was chosen.

The annual competition gives our students a chance to design the robes that UAL Chancellor Sir Grayson Perry goes on to wear at the summer graduation ceremonies. Now in its fifth year, the competition remains hugely popular among students, offering them a chance to create their own designs, putting the learning and skills they've acquired at UAL to the test, and receiving £1,500 in prize money to bring their robes to life.

The entries this year were diverse and unique and used techniques from knitting and embroidery to ceramics and laser cutting. There was even a 3D cat and a robot among the designs! The judges were extremely impressed with the level of quality and details within the designs and had a hard time deciding on who would make the shortlist from the 40 or so submissions received, including several from groups.

After in-depth deliberation, 6 designs were chosen and the students behind these designs were invited to pitch their robe concepts to Grayson, assisted by John Lau, Dean of Academic Strategy, London College of Fashion (LCF), Sarah Gresty, BA Fashion Course Leader, Central Saint Martins (CSM) and  Kevin Freeman, Course Leader for Theatre and Screen at Wimbledon College of Arts.

All of the shortlisted designs were potential winners and all of them would make outstanding and eye-catching robes. They each had something unique about them, with a common thread being the theme of sustainability.

The finalists (from left to right in the photo above) were:

• Hunni Palmer and Romi Lindenberg, 1st year students on the BA Costume for Theatre and Screen course at Wimbledon College of Arts. The pair said: "Through patchwork and embroidered embellishments in the form of Grayson's teddy, Allan Measles, we explored Grayson's personal life story. We went with an 18th-century silhouette, in which we incorporated patterns and shapes inspired by Grayson's art. We thought the wide skirt and robe taken from the era created a unique festive look that expresses confidence and royalty."  See more of Hunni's costume design.
• Yinfang Wang, 1st year, BA Fashion Jewellery student at London College of Fashion designed robes made of:  "... at least a thousand circles, dozens of plastic bottles, and thousands of pieces of plastic flowers of different sizes, and different coloured bottle caps." An ode to the potential of recycling.
• Central Saint Martins students Zhujing Dai, 1st year, BA Womenswear, Xian Zhan, 1st year, BA Fashion Print, and Qingting Yang, 2nd year, MA Ceramic Design, submitted a design that used recycled material from home furnishings such as strips of curtains and tablecloth, and even carpets. Techniques they used included beading 3D printing, knitting and ceramics. Grayson loved their 3D cat!
• London College of Fashion students, Tian Qing, 2nd year, BA Fashion Textiles, Fashion and Boqian Xuan, College: 2nd Year, BA Fashion Textiles: Print, , took their inspiration from "the nostalgic charm of kitsch art and childhood birthday cakes." They used techniques including digital print, foil print, flocking, crochet, and machine knitting to create a character named ‘Cake Angel’ for their robe.
• Central Saint Martins students Feifei Cheng, 1st year, BA (Hons) Jewellery Design and Xiangzhi Zhao,1st year, BA (Hons) Product and Industrial Design imagined the theme of 'The Journey of a Little Teddy Bear' and as well as their design sketches, created a robotic bear! The duo said: "This design tells the journey of many little teddy bears who end up being what they want to be. We used many interdisciplinary techniques in this design, such as circuit design, 3D printing, laser cutting etc. We have also designed a mechanical little teddy bear accessory for the robe, which can make corresponding movements with the speech.
• Giulia Rhodes, 1st year, Fashion Design and Development, London College of Fashion said of her design: "My look is about the problems we all have to face graduating into the ‘real world’. The front vest is made up of repurposed blow up kiddie pool, symbolizing inflation and my print on the back is a reference from Marie Antoinette's saying, 'Let them eat cake.’ "

And the winner is...

After much careful deliberation, Yinfang Wang, 1st year BA Fashion Jewellery at London College of Fashion was chosen as this year's winner.