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Fashion Design students collaborate with White Rose on up-cycling project

In October we attended an event celebrating the public release of the first-year NTU BA (Hons) Fashion Design X White Rose upcycled fashion collaboration in Nottingham city centre.

    Front of White Rose Store
    Exterior of White Rose Store

    Fashion Design students upcycle second-hand garments into bold new designs for White Rose Nottingham stores

    White Rose Recycled Fashion was established as a social enterprise in 2009 by two creative Nottingham Trent University graduates who were inspired by the work of the Aegis Trust, an international organisation working to prevent genocide. The NTU alumni, Grace Walker and Angela Ford, were inspired by their experience with the Aegis Trust whilst travelling in Rwanda and wanted to set up some form of charity shop to help make money. White Rose is now one of the most easily recognisable Nottingham fashion brands and has created a loyal customer base for their city centre and regional portfolio of stores, offering carefully selected upcycled and second-hand clothing and accessories.

    White Rose pride themselves as a charity shop with a difference, “offering lovingly hand-picked recycled clothes; men’s recycled fashion, women’s recycled fashion and kids recycled fashion. White Rose values people, planet and clothing, in a manner reflective of our organisational values”.

    The project involved a brief for first-year BA (Hons) Fashion Design students to repurpose textile waste, supplied from the White Rose donations centre, into fashion garments, to be sold to the public in 4 of their city centre stores. The proceeds made through selling the collection will be donated to The Aegis Trust.

    Ally Escott, senior fashion design lecturer and project lead at NTU said “The project has been fantastic; working with White Rose has enabled our first-year students to showcase their work in major Nottingham city centre shops, whilst reducing clothing waste to landfill and raising money for an important cause.”

    To find out more about White Rose, visit www.whiterose.com

    • Notes for editors

      Press enquiries please contact Chris Birkle, Public Relations Manager, on telephone +44 (0)115 848 2310, or via email.

      Nottingham Trent University (NTU) received the Queen’s Anniversary Prize for Higher and Further Education in 2021 for cultural heritage science research. It is the second time that NTU has been bestowed the honour of receiving a Queen’s Anniversary Prize for its research, the first being in 2015 for leading-edge research on the safety and security of global citizens.

      The Research Excellence Framework (2021) classed 83% of NTU’s research activity as either world-leading or internationally excellent. 86% of NTU’s research impact was assessed to be either world-leading or internationally excellent.

      NTU was awarded The Times and The Sunday Times Modern University of the Year 2023 and ranked second best university in the UK in the Uni Compare Top 100 rankings (2021/2022). It was awarded Outstanding Support for Students 2020 (Times Higher Education Awards), University of the Year 2019 (Guardian University Awards, UK Social Mobility Awards), Modern University of the Year 2018 (Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide) and University of the Year 2017 (Times Higher Education Awards).

      NTU is the 5th largest UK institution by student numbers, with approximately 40,000 students and more than 4,400 staff located across five campuses. It has an international student population of 7,000 and an NTU community representing over 160 countries.

      Since 2000, NTU has invested £570 million in tools, technology, buildings and facilities.

      NTU is in the UK’s top 10 for number of applications and ranked first for accepted offers (2021 UCAS UG acceptance data). It is also among the UK’s top five recruiters of students from disadvantaged backgrounds and was the first UK university to sign the Social Mobility Pledge.

      NTU is ranked 2nd most sustainable university in the world in the 2022 UI Green Metric University World Rankings (out of more than 900 participating universities).

    Published on 9 November 2023
    • Category: Current students; School of Art & Design