Holly-Jo Crowhurst

My graduate collection is historically inspired and focuses on the real story of mariner Michael Greenwood (1731–1812), whose life was detailed on a plaque I discovered during lockdown in our shared hometown of Faversham. He was press-ganged and taken a slave by Moroccan pirates in the 1750s whilst in the Navy, aged 17. After 17 months, he was ransomed and returned home. A photo of my late grandad Jim in the Navy in the 1950s further inspired this collection; he lived his entire life in Faversham and served in the Navy almost exactly 200 years after Michael Greenwood. This contemporary A/W collection service to perform the narrative of the Mariners enslavement, as imagined through my eyes.