Blackburn College Add Style

Educated Fashion

Blackburn College have once again teamed up with our East Lancashire Hospice Darwen shop to bring style and pizzazz to items that need upcycling.

This time the focus was soft furnishings, and they have again impressed the shoppers and the staff at Darwen with their fantastic ideas.

Over around a month, items such as broken jewellery, old frames, lampshades, and cushion infills were collected from the shop and re-purposed in imaginative ways by the students from the Extended Diploma Course.

The students are studying for a Level 3 Fashion and Textiles course and tasked to consider sustainability - to bring a new lease of life to these old items such as picture frames, lampshades and other unwanted items.

Using their skills and knowledge whilst studying, they produced one off, individual items to sell and raise money.

The windows and interior of the shop have also been re-designed to bring a fresh perspective and a more enjoyable shopping experience.

The links between the shop and the College Textiles department have been growing and strengthening over several months. This is the second time students from Blackburn College have made such an outstanding impression with their designs. The plan after the summer is that students will prepare displays for the shop and designs for a fashion show, with photography students practising their skills.

The volunteers and staff are looking forward to being models for the event, whilst the students can look to a future that can include photography, fashion designer and fashion buyer as their career.