Fashion: return of the Mac

FOR fashion students, art college can be a time of experimentation.

It's a time to explore more conceptual ideas, to play around with fabrics and to spend weeks working on pieces that will never be worn in the real world. Such an approach is undoubtedly good fun, but is it preparation enough for life after college?

Final-year fashion students at the Edinburgh College of Art and Heriot-Watt University School of Textiles and Design were recently offered the opportunity to design pieces which will be worn by the buying public.

The new Scottish Academy of Fashion – which aims to link industry with research and expertise in the university sector – recently brought the students together with Mackintosh, makers of the famous rainwear, to rework the classic Mackintosh raincoat.

Daniel Dunko, the managing director at Mackintosh, was so impressed with the students' efforts that he selected four designs to be manufactured and sold in the Cumbernauld-based company's new flagship store, which is scheduled to open in London's Mayfair in October.

"The design students had access to our archives and reinterpreted the designs from our extensive 200-year heritage," explains Dunko. "We are so impressed with the high standard of the work produced that we have selected four designs to show as a capsule collection, and these will be available as bespoke orders."

A design classic, the handmade Mackintosh raincoat is particularly popular in Japan where the brand enjoys a cult status. However, in addition to simple cuts and timeless neutral shades, the company offers more youthful, fashion-forward pieces, also in their rubberised fabric. For this particular project, students – who mainly worked in pairs – were asked to make their selection from a wide choice of Mackintosh's waterproof fabrics. As well as exploring the archives, they visited the factory and learned about the manufacturing process.

Lisa Leisos worked with Jett Sweeney to create a green caped coat with eyelet detail and a tie belt. "It was amazing to get to use the Mackintosh fabric," she says. "We designed the garment but had help from Mackintosh to seal all of the seams so that it is fully waterproof. It was quite a challenge creating a piece that's unlined, and always having to keep that in mind. I'm used to working on more conceptual projects so this has been a real eye-opener. It's made me think that I'd like to work on two lines of my own; one very conceptual and one more wearable."

One of the most eye-catching student pieces is a bronze coat created by Eliza Borkowska and Isabel Wong. "We're used to working to our own brief, where we can essentially do whatever we want, so to do something a bit more commercial where we were working to a real brief was just fantastic experience," says Wong. "It's amazing to know that I could see someone walking down the street in our design."

Charles Macintosh patented his invention for a waterproof cloth in 1823, and soon began manufacturing it into coats in his family's textile factory, Charles Macintosh & Co of Glasgow. By 1830, the company had merged with Thomas Hancock, a Manchester clothing company which had been experimenting with rubberised fabrics.

Early issues with smell, stiffness, and the tricky problem of the fabric "melting" in warm weather were overcome and in 1843 Hancock patented a method for vulcanising rubber. The company sold Mackintosh coats – often known as "Macs" – for 150 years, but the company was under threat by the end of the 20th century. At this point it was taken over by Dunko, who took it upmarket, collaborating with some of the world's leading fashion houses, including Gucci, Herms and Louis Vuitton.

Mackintosh was approached last year by Robert Gillan, associate head of fashion and textiles at the Edinburgh College of Art, who proposed that the heritage brand team up with some of his students, as well as students from Heriot Watt. The suggestion was met with enthusiasm, but Gillan was bowled over when Mackintosh made the decision to sell the students' work in their new store.

"It was important to us that we work with one of the best Scottish companies around, and Mackintosh is such an iconic Scottish brand," he says.

"It was a fantastic learning experience for the students to see how the coats are made and to be involved in a live project of this size. It's not very often that they get to do something on this scale, especially here in Scotland, so it was very exciting for them, and it's a great first project for the Scottish Academy of Fashion."

"This is just the beginning," adds Kirsty Scott, the interim project director at the Academy. "Core to the Scottish Academy of Fashion is the development of a collaborative academic and industry network incorporating international partners.

"Industry has identified the need for a single point of access to the range of contacts and knowledge that exists in higher education. Part of the appeal of this highly ambitious project is the potential to develop Scotland as a unique international hub for fashion education and industry-relevant research."

As much as such a collaboration benefits industry, it is perhaps the students who get the most out of it. Graduating into a particularly difficult economy, they now have a portfolio that includes designs commissioned by one of Britain's oldest heritage brands. Their work has been critiqued and passed :by its managing director, a man who managed to make Macs cool again, and for a handful of them, their pieces will be worn by some of the UK's coolest and style-savvy customers. Mac is definitely the new black.