Ravensbourne students present at Digital Fashion Week NY

We are thrilled to announce that two of our BA (Hons) Fashion students have been selected to take part in Digital Fashion Week New York. Ivan Svanberg and Rozanne Da Costa were both chosen for their striking, innovative designs and will present a video celebrating their digital work. We sat down with Ivan to find out about his experience.

How does it feel to be part of Digital Fashion Week New York 2021?
It feels really cool to be part of this year’s Digital Fashion Week NY. Digital design is something that we on the fashion course started being taught just last year, and it was kind of optional how much time we individually wanted to invest into using digital design. But seeing as the pandemic had shaken things up so much already, I was really open to trying out something new, and I've always acknowledged and appreciated the place that digital fashion has in videogames, where you can dress up your character.

I found that making samples digitally, before I start making them physically in the real world, helped me identify faults and rights in my pattern cutting very early on, and so I kept using the program a lot just to improve my process. Before I knew it, I had made quite a lot of digitally rendered garments and when the opportunity came up with Digital Fashion Week New York, I did not hesitate and thought immediately that I had something to share with the world. The metaverse and online world is continuously growing and videogame fashion is becoming more and more acknowledged so I think that, whether doing digital fashion or working with Clo3D is something you are into or not, there is a huge and welcoming home for this type of work out there.

How has your course helped your career so far?
Something that the Fashion course at Ravensbourne does really well, is equipping the students with so many tools that will be useful to you further down the line, depending on what you want to focus on in your career. But man, it’s amazing how many different useful tools and skills they teach us. At Ravensbourne, I can confidently say that I have been equipped with all of the necessary skills and tools that I need to realize my job as a fashion designer and all that entails. And this is coming from someone with the background of studying science at gymnasium in Sweden and having absolutely no experience or education in Fashion or design before coming to Ravensbourne.

What advice would you give to students who would like to study Fashion at Ravensbourne?
Be open to criticism and have an open mind at all times. Let this be an opportunity for self-exploration, it is as if you are studying yourself and your own creative desire and the course is simply there to help you research and harness that and then put it into something productive and beautiful. The course is intense but rightfully so, and the tutors are extremely helpful and supportive and the more time and energy you put into the course, the more the course and the tutors are able to give back to you.

Digital Fashion Week New York takes place from Wednesday 28 April, with student fashion shows taking place on Thursday 29 April 2021. You can find out more on the official website.

Check out Ivan’s work on his Instagram account: @iv.em.sv
You can check out Rozanne’s work on her Instagram account: @r.dacostaa
You can also view the student work on the official Digital Fashion Week NY Instagram account

Ravensbourne have launched a brand new Digital Technology for Fashion Pathway (Year 2 entry). The course begins in September 2021.