Someone sewing blue fabric using a sewing machine

WHO'S COMING TO EAST BANK: LONDON COLLEGE OF FASHION

Welcoming world-renowned organisations like BBC Music, Sadler’s Wells and a new V&A / Smithsonian partnership, it’s going to bring jobs, tourism and business to Stratford. Not to mention new spaces for creative, academic and civic activity.

London College of Fashion (LCF) are one of the academic institutions set to have a brand new campus for their 6,500 staff and students. LCF originated as three London trade schools for women, set up to train women in dressmaking, embroidery, millinery and tailoring. Now, it’s part of the University of the Arts, London.

Notable alumni include Jimmy Choo, Driss Jettou and Ioana Ciolacu. The college offers fashion based courses across a range of disciplines. For example, at undergrad you can study BA (Hons) in Costume for Performance, Fashion Buying and Merchandising, Fashion Journalism, Fashion Design Technology or Fashion Marketing. They also offer integrated masters, access courses for higher education and short courses for people who are looking to learn something new on a less permanent basis.

The new campus in Stratford will house multi-purpose lecture theatres to be used for classes as well as community events. There will be public spaces featuring work from some of the courses, art and a café. It will have specialist teaching spaces for media, communications and the fashion business school.

The design is inspired by mills from the nineteenth century – simple on the outside, but the inside will be filled with complex open spaces, showing the hive of activity on all levels. There will be a public route through the college, available for use during working hours. From this route, people will be able to see into the college’s workspaces.

The new London fashion college campus is set to open in 2022. For more information about the courses they offer, visit the London College of Fashion website.