BLOW PR would like to announce that Julian Roberts has been appointed the UK’s youngest Professor of Fashion.

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Those convinced of the intellectually lightweight nature of fashion may find their opinions in need of revision following the announcement this week that London fashion designer Julian Roberts has been appointed Professor of Fashion at the University of Hertfordshire

Charged with overseeing the new BA Fashion course, which begins in September, Roberts will be one of the youngest dons ever appointed to a university chair. He will, in addition, form part of an elite handful of style boffins currently gracing the UK’s halls of academia.

"The focus of the new Fashion programme will be on the innovation and research of new avenues for fashion retail," explains Roberts. "Students will be given the opportunity to experience a broad range of creative and technical skills, allowing them to design, construct, manufacture, promote and market innovative fashion products. Particular emphasis will be placed on understanding and anticipating the needs of the fashion retail industry and on employability."

Roberts’ appointment reflects the cerebral approach that informs much of the work he and partner Sophie explore in their eponymously titled label, JULIAN & SOPHIE.

Together they have developed a new method of garment construction dubbed 'Subtraction Cutting’. The basic premise is that the patterns they cut do not represent garments outward shape, but rather the negative spaces within them that make them hollow. Simply put, shaped holes cut from huge sheets of cloth through which the body moves.

In addition to touring the country teaching their method, their online "Pattern Cutting School" at www.julianand.com explains some of their more unusual cutting techniques for free. Indeed, such has been the success of their brainchild that their method has now been taught at the Royal College of Art, Central St.Martins, Glasgow School of Art, Bath Spa University College, Westminster University, and Kent Institute.

No stranger to hard yakka, Julian has also worked extensively as a visiting lecturer in Fashion and Textiles and held exhibitions and design seminars in nine countries worldwide. He has produced twelve collections as a consultant designer for various luxury and high street retailers, and has shown at both Paris and London Fashion Week under the JULIAN & SOPHIE and ‘nothing nothing’ labels. The most remarkable of these events being a 150ft tall film projection onto the Natural History Museum in September 2002; and a week-long bed-in’ at the Great Eastern Hotel in London during which journalists and buyers were invited to his bedside to view his Autumn/Winter 2003 "Pyjama Combat" collection.

Adamant that his teaching duties will not impinge on JULIAN & SOPHIE’s output, one can only hope Roberts caught enough zzz’s at last years sleepover since it’s safe to assume that he won’t be seeing much of his duvet for the foreseeable future.

(TEXT: Maia Adams)

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