News / 22 Apr 2025
Fashion Design student wins placement at clothsurgeon on Savile Row
BA (Hons) Fashion Design
Final year BA (Hons) Fashion Design student Mimi Allen has won a placement at Savile Row brand clothsurgeon.
Every year, Leeds Arts University alumni, and Founder and Creative Director of clothsurgeon, Rav Matharu invites our final year BA (Hons) Fashion Design students to his store on Savile Row, London, as part of a live portfolio project.
The project challenges students to design for the clothsurgeon customers, and the winning student is offered invaluable industry experience through a place on clothsurgeon’s internship programme.
The brief asked students to design a four-outfit Autumn/Winter 2025 collection for clothsurgeon, focused towards the mens, womens or a gender-neutral market.
This year's winner was Mimi Allen, who designed a collection called 'Boys in Blue', inspired by the blue military uniform her Dad wore in the RAF. Matt Tomkins and Cara Murphy were chosen as runners up.
"My main inspiration came from images of my Dad during his time spent serving in the RAF. I began to delve deeper into the iconic navy dress uniforms and see how I could incorporate this with the clothsurgeon streetwear aesthetic. I conducted research on fabrics from the main military uniform supplier of Hainsworth, and created a collaborative concept of "clothsurgeon X Boys in Blue."
Mimi Allen, BA (Hons) Fashion Design student
Of all the briefs she has worked on during her time on the course, Mimi found the clothsurgeon brief the most exciting and engaging, feeling that the brand itself really matched her style of working, saying: "I love all the detailing, shapes and technical aspects of Clothsurgeon."
Mimi was given the choice of having her garment created by the clothsurgeon team, utilising Rav’s fabric store in East London, or a one-week internship with at clothsurgeon.
"When my tutor came in to tell me I'd won I genuinely didn’t believe her, I’m amongst some of the most talented design students I’ve ever seen so to actually be chosen was such a surprise to me. I’ll definitely be taking the placement, I feel I'd be silly not to, it’s going to be such an amazing and insightful experience and such a good way to kickstart life after graduation."
Mimi Allen, BA (Hons) Fashion Design student