In 2025, young creatives from across the Commonwealth, supported by Caramel Rock and the Commonwealth Fashion Council, embarked on a bold journey to explore fashion’s role beyond style, as a powerful tool of diplomacy, identity, protest, and cultural reclamation. Through their designs, they asked:
What messages do our clothes carry, and who do we become when we wear them?
This year’s theme, Fashion Diplomacy and Fashion Movements, invited students to investigate how clothing shapes political narratives, influences social change, and challenges established systems. From the symbolic power of First Ladies’ wardrobes to the rebellious spirit of slogan t-shirts, and from economic shifts reflected in style to the vital act of decolonising dress, these young voices used fashion to tell stories of resistance, unity, and transformation.
Explore their creative journeys, from evocative garments to personal reflections, and discover how fashion becomes a language of power, identity, and hope in a world ready for change.
What happens when a garment designed to support becomes a symbol of suppression?
In her project, Amelia, a white-British student at Caramel Rock, interrogates the bra as both a cultural artifact and a site of emotional weight for women and gender-diverse people across the Commonwealth. Her work invites us to reconsider this everyday object through a historical, political, and deeply personal lens.
Amelia traces the bra’s evolution from ancient bandeaus to 1950s hourglass ideals, uncovering how Western beauty standards, amplified by designers like Christian Dior, have long shaped and molded women’s bodies to fit social expectations. She acknowledges how these standards were not only internalised in the West but exported across Commonwealth nations through colonial influence.
Drawing attention to historical injustices like the 19th-century “breast tax” in India, she contrasts Western modesty ideals with traditional breast aesthetics. Her work asks: Why has the West so often dictated what women should wear, and at what cost to cultural identity and bodily autonomy?
Through fabric manipulation and deconstruction of donated bras, Amelia creates a powerful artefact: a reconstructed corset form, adorned with knots and loose straps. Each element represents the tension between restriction and liberation, the personal and political. Hanging bands evoke the “downward weight” of societal expectations, while entangled knots speak to shared experience and solidarity.
“A bra is more than just a garment, it’s a complex cultural artifact. By deconstructing it, I found freedom.”
Amelia’s final piece is both protest and tribute: a sculptural expression of pain, resilience, and reclamation.
Can fashion carry the weight of peace?
In her collection “Threads of Peace,” Ayesha reimagines diplomatic dressing as an art form, one that honours memory, builds bridges, and communicates across cultures. Inspired by the wardrobes of Princess Diana and Catherine, Princess of Wales, Ayesha’s work reflects how fashion can move beyond appearance to embody values of unity, respect, and remembrance.
Her three-piece collection draws from the 1996 and 2019 royal visits to Pakistan, exploring how both Diana and Kate used clothing to reflect admiration for local customs and promote cross-cultural dialogue.
Look One: Structured Ivory Coat Dress
Embroidered with peace doves and a subtle map of Pakistan, this design fuses Western tailoring with Eastern motifs. The strong silhouette conveys dignity, while soft details symbolise hope and diplomacy.
Look Two: Royal Blue Shalwar Kameez
A richly embroidered ensemble with zardozi-inspired gold threadwork, this modern shalwar kameez celebrates Pakistani craftsmanship. The colour blue evokes strength and poise, while the embroidery honours cultural richness and resilience.
Look Three: Embroidered Ivory Long Dress
A tribute to Princess Diana’s 1996 tour, this look is adorned with jasmine, Pakistan’s national flower, alongside peace signs and dove motifs. It evokes modest elegance and cultural harmony.
“This collection isn’t just clothing, it’s a message,” Ayesha shares. “It says: we remember, we respect, and we hope for peace.”
The pieces are lined with silk satin, ensuring comfort and luxury, while honouring the tradition of textile prestige in South Asian fashion.
Ayesha’s project stands as a quiet but powerful expression of fashion diplomacy, one that uses embroidery, silhouette, and symbolism to advocate for peace and mutual respect between nations.
What if fashion could speak louder than words?
In her project for the Commonwealth Fashion Education Initiative 2025, Joyce Micheline Mafolo dives into the legacy of Alexander McQueen, the visionary British designer known for using fashion as a medium for storytelling, emotional depth, and social commentary. Drawing from McQueen’s dramatic aesthetics and bold ideas, Joyce begins to shape her own voice as a designer: expressive, reflective, and unafraid.
Her learning journal explores McQueen’s impact on fashion and society:
Fashion as a form of art
Runway shows that were theatrical and immersive
Challenging beauty standards
Promoting diversity and mental health awareness
Through mood boards and early T-shirt sketches, Joyce interprets these themes into her own design process. Her work channels McQueen’s emotional intensity, while beginning a personal dialogue around identity, visibility, and the power of fashion to provoke thought.
“McQueen didn’t just make clothes. He made statements, and I want to do the same.”
Her final designs, inspired by McQueen’s early beginnings, his love of craft, and his fearlessness, celebrate both his legacy and her own artistic awakening.
Joyce’s project is a tribute and a starting point: a recognition of how one designer’s journey can ignite new paths for others. It reminds us that fashion education is not just about skill, it’s about courage, curiosity, and connection.
“When society tries to erase you, what you wear becomes a declaration that you exist.” Astrid Norrts
For Astrid, fashion is not simply about aesthetics, it is about survival, authenticity, and pride. In her project “Miss Stonewall,” she explores the power of clothing as a lifeline for queer and trans people, especially trans women. Her work honours those who came before, uplifts those still fighting, and affirms that style can be a tool for resistance and self-definition.
Rooted in queer history and ballroom culture, Astrid’s project draws inspiration from the 1969 Stonewall uprising and iconic figures like Marsha P. Johnson and Venus Xtravaganza. Through visual storytelling and artefact creation, she revives the radical joy, courage, and defiance of a community long pushed to the margins.
At the heart of her piece is a handcrafted crown, infused with meaning. Adorned with vintage beads, a nod to trans people’s timeless presence, and reflecting the colours of the trans flag, the crown becomes a symbol of survival, celebration, and the right to be seen.
Astrid also pays tribute to the ballroom scene of the 1980s, a space where fashion, dance, and performance were powerful acts of self-expression and community. In these spaces, queer and trans people didn’t just perform; they proclaimed who they were.
“Fashion lets me define my femininity on my own terms. It helps me feel real, and feel proud.”
Through this collection, Astrid challenges transphobia, reclaims visibility, and reminds us that queer existence has always been a part of our collective story.
“Fashion is not just form, it is voice, memory, and resistance.” Hellen Andetsion
In Woven Resistance, Hellen Andetsion reimagines what fashion can be, not trend or excess, but legacy and protest. Using discarded African print fabrics and glass beads, she created a series of multi-wearable accessories, collars, belts, and shoulder pieces, that celebrate African identity while rejecting waste and Western aesthetic dominance.
This project stands at the intersection of decolonisation and sustainability, using fashion as a storytelling vessel. Each colour woven into the design carries meaning:
Green for nature, growth, and renewal.
Yellow for optimism and the richness of African traditions.
Black for strength, resilience, and unity.
These colours don’t just decorate; they declare. The beaded forms cascade with movement, echoing ancestral rhythms and cultural memory, while the adaptability of each piece, worn across the body in various forms, invites personal and political interpretation.
Hellen’s process was entirely hands-on: sourcing fabric scraps, experimenting with draping, and hand-sewing pieces that carry both craftsmanship and symbolism. Even leftover materials became valuable: she created a handbag and book covers from remnants, pushing against fast fashion and showing how design rooted in resourcefulness can still astonish.
“What is thrown away still has something to say.”
Inspired by leaders like Burkina Faso’s President Ibrahim Traoré, who rejected colonial court dress in favour of traditional attire, Hellen’s work pushes back against fashion’s Western norms. Her accessories offer a counter-narrative, one that centres African culture, uplifts ancestral wisdom, and refuses silence.
Woven Resistance is not just wearable, it’s revolutionary. It proposes a fashion future that honours community, memory, and the planet.
What does it mean to carry the spirit of two cities in your creativity?
In her learning journal for the Commonwealth Fashion Education Initiative 2025, Juliana Ohwako shares her personal journey from Warri, Nigeria to Vienna, Austria, where she once lived and found rich inspiration. Though she no longer lives in Vienna, her time there deeply influenced her creative outlook and the pieces she designed.
Juliana’s work features a bold skirt with striking yellow and blue patterns, alongside a more delicate, sweetly patterned shirt, garments that visually tell a story of cultural fusion. A standout detail is the invisible zip expertly placed on the front of the shirt, showcasing her precision and commitment to polished craftsmanship.
Her moodboard-style journal weaves together images and memories from Warri’s vibrant traditions and Vienna’s refined elegance, reflecting how migration shapes identity and fashion expression.
“Living in Vienna opened my eyes. Warri gave me roots. Together, they shape my designs.”
Juliana’s collection is a celebration of cross-cultural dialogue, a reminder that fashion is often born from journeys between places and selves.
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