The world of motorsport has decided to take a different approach to enticing people to the sport that has produced legends such as Ayrton Senna and Michael Schumacher; fashion. Formula Fashion is a project based on Northampton’s motorsport heritage and leather industry using fashion pieces created by five budding designers from across the UK.

Launched at the Air Asia Moto GP earlier this month, the exhibition will now be touring around venues in Northampton and the East Midlands after it was fortunate enough to be showcased at Silverstone over the 2011 Formula One Santander Grand Prix weekend. With the race bringing thousands of spectators to the track and millions watching worldwide, the profile of Formula Fashion has increased dramatically. Leicester lecturer Jo Cope is one of the lucky individuals to be selected for the project. A fashion Design lecturer at De Montfort University (DMU), Jo will be part of the exciting and innovative idea which shows enthusiasm for the sport and its background.

The designers have explored themes such as speed, danger, the shape of the race track, high performance, engineering, and racing personalities, showing spectators Northampton’s proud heritage of world-famous leather industry. The designs will teach the young and old about a history of the area which has a strong connection with motorsport.

Jo Cope’s designs took inspiration from the sport’s continuing obsession with the speed and performance of racing cars through aerodynamics. Ducati yellow coated leathers, carbon fibres and rubber have been brought together to create a ‘transmorphic’ garment that resembles the aesthetics of a racing car and adapts into two body positions.

Commenting on her work, Jo said: “I considered that the most interesting body position to work with would be one that mimicked the driver’s body in the car in an almost horizontal position. I was also interested in communicating the cross-over between the garment as a piece of art and that of something that resembled a more familiar piece of fashion. The garment has been designed to visually transform from a laying aerodynamic form to a standing position where the leather cutting and shapes of each garment fall in a new way around the body.”

Formula Fashion is part of Igniting Ambition, a Cultural Olympiad programme in the East Midlands, which invests in projects and people that take the London 2012 Games as their inspiration to create once-in-a-lifetime cultural opportunities for audiences and communities.

Igniting Ambition is funded by Legacy Trust UK, an independent charity set up to create a cultural and sporting legacy from the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympics Games, the European Regional Development Fund and the East Midlands Development Agency, with the support of Arts Council England and many others.

To learn more about Formula Fashion go to www.northamptonshireletyourselfgrow.com

By Amy Bennett