Photo – BGS Alumna, Zadee Garrigue
It has been fantastic to see our alumnae return to BGS to speak about their creative careers to Art and Textiles students.
On Friday 4th February, we were joined by alumna and textiles talent, Abiola Onabulé (DAHS 2012), who joined us to talk about her career as a fashion designer and spend time in an Upper Sixth Textiles class. After an Art Foundation, she studied Fashion Design at the University of Westminster (First Class Degree), followed by a Masters in Fashion from Central Saint Martins. Abiola talked in detail about the differences in the universities and what appealed to her about both in terms of course content and facilities available.
Now working as a fashion designer, Abiola has worked for a number of international designers, including a recent collaboration with NY designer, Tyler McGillivary. Previously she was selected as one of the four Designers in Residence at the Design Museum, 2020-2021, showcasing the craft of Adire textile art, a type of indigo-dyed cloth typically made in southwestern Nigeria by Yoruba women, using a variety of resist-dyeing techniques.
To view Abiola’s work further, including her BA and MA collections click here.
The following week, alumna Zadee Garrigue (2015) joined us on 11th February to talk to our students about studying Architecture. Zadee completed her undergraduate training at the University of Bath and is now undertaking her Masters in Architecture at the University of Westminster.
Zadee provided a really interesting talk and explained that studying Architecture can vary from university to university and that it is important to research the different courses on offer. She also expanded that studying Architecture also equips you to a route into other areas such as town planning and interior design.
Zadee brought in a collection of her portfolios for the students to look at and she talked about how she has designed a dementia centre as part of her work experience, adapting a holistic approach which incorporated the natural environment to help its users. She also talked about architects that she admires such as Tatiana Bilbao as they focus on designing something with a community impact, which she finds inspiring.
