Students debuted their designs at a catwalk show in December
By Fran di Fazio

From left to right, Luke Hippolyte, Brenda, Navayah, Deputy Mayor Lester Buxton, Sheldon, Amario and Nadia Abbas. Credit: FLAARE

Students from Haringey Learning Partnership (HLP) have launched an exclusive T-shirt collection in partnership with two London-based fashion organisations.

HLP pupils Amario, Brenda, Navayah and Sheldon debuted their designs during a runway show last Friday (2nd December). The collection was co-designed during a 12-week work experience programme led by the social enterprise FLAARE and the independent fashion brand STÖÖKI.

FLAARE founder Izzie Fernandes, who hosted the event in Wood Green, was delighted with the students’ engagement. Izzie said: “They all genuinely got behind the programme, they really got into what they were doing, and they’re really proud of their work. I’m so pleased with how everyone got to see the work that they’ve done today.”

HLP student Navayah masterminded two of the slogans printed on the T-shirts – “time is money” and “the legacy goes on” – and now dreams of founding her own clothing business. Speaking about her designs, Navayah said: “For me, legacy is going on your own path. If someone makes one memory, I think that you should build on it and add your own design, add your own flavour to it, and inspire different people so they can make it their own.”

Nadia Abbas and Luke Hippolyte are the co-founders of STÖÖKI, which provided resources and guided the students throughout the production process. They noticed parallels between the students’ journeys and the origin of their own brand, which was founded in 2011. Luke said: “We were young, just came out of study, and we wanted to do our own thing. We used our passions to build our own brand, and now we want to help the new generation to launch their businesses in the same way that we did.”

Nadia added: “I think it’s really important to nurture the local talent. We’ve given them an insight into the non-academic route of what they could potentially do once they leave school.

“We’ve worked with the students from the brainstorming up until the actual design and the heat pressing of the t-shirts. I think they enjoyed it, especially being pretty hands-on.”

The collection is now available for pre-order and the profits will be split between FLAARE and the HLP students, who can expect to earn up to £400 each.

One of the students, Amario, said: “I put a lot of time into [my designs], and I’m happy to know I’m going to get something out of this as well.”

Moving forward, FLAARE is hoping to extend the work experience programme. Izzie said: “Our vision now is to bring FLAARE into every school and every community that we can, sharing our message to create, learn, build and earn, and bringing onboard more brands to help empower the next generation of young talented entrepreneurs.

“A real driver of FLAARE is to empower young people to think about their futures. We need to make sure that we’re channeling their skills and energy in the right way, helping them build and develop skills and experiences that are tangible and relevant, where they can see the outputs.”

You can pre-order the T-shirt collection at: everpress.com/profile/flaare

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