On Thursday 18th June we were invited to attend the 1000 threads catwalk gala, at Central Square Brindleyplace Birmingham, by founder and director of 1000 threads who also happens to be our CreaTech Frontiers mentor, Lee Lapthorne.

As alumni of BCU we’ve loved being able to head ‘back’ to uni to work with some of the students on our CreaTech project, and work with our incredible mentors which in turn has given us the opportunity to attend events like this.

The catwalk, going straight through the centre of the square across the fountain, along with the huge crates gave it an impactful backdrop. And it certainly drew a large crowd, with people stopping to watch as they walked through Brindleyplace.

Those of us with wristbands were the lucky ones with a seat, but that also meant we had early access to the X building exhibition, and the after party at IKON.

The exhibition at X10 is open to the public until 1st July 2026. Which is well worth a visit if you’re close by to see the creative excellence of the university’s student community.

During VIP drinks at Bank restaurant, we were lucky enough to speak with Sean Pajarillo, the designer of the above clothing. The level of detail and finish to his work is incredible. For the next phase of the work we’ve been doing with CreaTech Frontiers, we’re hoping to gain further funding which will allow us to develop our wearable tech piece even more and allow us to work with Sean, as his futuristic Japanese style really fits with our own design choices.

These young designers are definitely worth keeping an eye on, we’ll be following them closely over the coming years to see where their talents take them.

Nicci x

This has been written from Nicci’s own blog – Jogging Through Porridge.