Post 16 textiles students recently visited the exclusive Yves Saint Laurent: Style is Eternal exhibition at the Bowes Museum in Barnard Castle and took part in some innovative skills building workshops.

Post 16 textiles students recently visited the exclusive Yves Saint Laurent: Style is Eternal exhibition at the Bowes Museum in Barnard Castle and took part in some innovative skills building workshops.

The students were treated to a fantastic display of the French fashion designer's work featuring some of his most famous pieces as well as the chance to view his design drawings, test pieces and fashion shoot photographs. After having a guided tour of the exhibition, the students put their own skills to the test in two textiles workshops. They began by exploring the use of calico by manipulating and changing its surface qualities using techniques such as shredding, pleating and folding. This linked closely to Yves Saint Laurent's work, in which he would push the boundaries of what could be achieved with a fabric and try to use it in unusual and exciting ways.

In their second workshop the students were challenged to work in teams to create an item of clothing out of a man’s shirt that had been taken apart. The only rules were that they couldn't turn it back into a shirt or use any other material. The results were amazing and really showed off our students ingenuity and ability to think creatively under pressure.

A fantastic learning experience was had by all and many of the skills, techniques and processes used on the day have been used by our students since to develop their work even further.