THE TRUTH ABOUT STUDYING FASHION AT UNIVERSITY

Before heading off to uni I was frantically on the internet trying to find peoples experiences about University to try and calm my nerves for the next 3 years ahead of me.  After searching youtube and blogs in an attempt to 'prepare' myself; I resulted in failure not finding anyone who spoke out about their time at uni, leaving me in slightly more worry than first thought.  Being a recent graduate from studying Fashion Design at uni, I decided to share my experiences with you, in an attempt , that if your reading this and are about to fly the nest and go uni, then hopefully, this may give you an insight into studying fashion or a creative course, or life at university in general.

Firstly, I would like to mention that everyone's experience at university is different, obviously depending on what course they do, what uni they go to and who they are as a person.  I think that it is an incredible personal achievement getting accepted into university that is often overlooked by many people, as it is not only a huge step in their life but also a journey that often involves their family and friends around them too.

I've decided to sub-categorise some important topics that I want to chat so that I ensure I try and cover as much as possible, but allows you guys to jumps to certain topics in case I bore you all.

Work Load:

Going from school to university is undeniably a huge jump, from moving away from home to making new friends, let alone the increase in independent learning to the significant increase in workload.  As a bit of background knowledge for you all, I live in Kent and decided to go to University in Bournemouth at the Arts University Bournemouth (AUB).  I decided to go straight out of school after studying my A-levels at 6th form at my secondary school, where I was 18 at the time of starting university.  On my first day, I'm not going to lie but I was very nervous as literally had no idea what to expect.  All I knew is that I was about to walk into a studio along with 60-odd other people and listen to a short brief that was supposed to prepare us for the upcoming 3 years.  After a day of introductory talks, we were straight in there with the beginning of two projects running simultaneously at the same time.  Throughout my entire 3 years at university, we were constantly working on two projects at the same time, run by 2 different leaders and both with completely different ways of working as well both projects being completely different to one another.  These projects lasted a term at a time which roughly was about a 3 month period.  My timetable meant that w were scheduled in uni everyday with one day off in 1st and 2nd year, which in addition were long uni days - 9am-5pm.  To me, at first I wasn't too shocked by the timetable as was very similar to school for me, but in comparison to flatmates and my friends at other unis who were doing different courses having 2 hours in uni on one day was classed as a long day for them!!!  Come final year we were doing 14+ hour days at uni- having to get to uni at 7am as soon as the studios opened to ensure you got a table you liked (that sounds stupid in itself but i'll explain after) and leaving uni when the studios closed and we would literally be kicked out by security and 9pm.  Occasionally we would go over to the neighbouring university to use their library so we could continue doing sketchbook work till midnight when that closed.

*tables.... so everyday we were allocated a studio to work in and often there were not enough tables per student - to have one each.  And in addition every night you stored your work under the tables (often many boxes and bags worth of stuff) so the agg - some may call it lazy, but the agg of having to "relocate every day and move all your stuff wasn't worth it.  In addition, in our studios, friendship groups form and you obviously wanted to be on a table near your mates so the results were waking up early to essentially claim your table.*

Stress:

Work only increased as the years went on which as a result stress levels increased too.   The amount of work constantly required is definitely a struggle at times due to quick turnarounds and tutors forever asking/suggesting for new ideas/designs/research.  I fully believe that if you choose to do a creative course then yes the workload is a lot to deal with at times, however the result at the end is worth it 10 times over, and the more effort you put in the more you will get out of it.  Being truthful it is incredibly tricky at times to keep cool with the amount of work you have to do, and I'm not gonna lie and say I dealt with it fine cause come 3rd year I was having daily breakdowns along with my mates but you just know by that point that the end in sight and you just have to get on with it.  It even got to the point of making a cry chart just to keep some light on the fact that we were so stressed, we had to laugh cause the real fact is if we didn't laugh we would just carry on crying hahaha.  Keeping focused and setting up a good routine for yourself definitely helps.

Friends:

Some of my best friends now are the ones that I met at university.  I was incredibly lucky that when I moved into halls, I lived with 7 other girls and at first worry there was gonna be a lot of bitchiness but thank god there wasn't.  We all clicked instantly and got on very well.  My coursemates are also incredible.  Meeting them on the first day of uni and staying together for as long as I can imagine, these girls honestly made my uni experience and the laughs we had at uni were some of my favourite memories to date.  Having a great friendship group around you truly made my uni experience and massively helped through difficult times, knowing that they are there to listen and support you know matter what.

Post-Graduating:

After graduating 4 months ago now, well, not much has changed in my life.  With the 'promises' that as soon as we leave we will be invited to numerous interviews and will most likely get our foot in the industry in the hope that we all swiftly move to London and live together.  Oh, how we were wrong.  To date, I have applied for approximately 60 jobs in the fashion industry, and have not received a single phone call or email regarding the job about a single one.  Yes, I have received the standard apologetic email about not being successful but not being a slight bit successful in one is truly disheartening.  And not only me but the majority of my friends too.  Thankfully I have a part-time job at the moment, however, I would like to work in London soon.  In addition, fashion pay is not appealing.  Little do they mention at uni that you will work for free or low-pay in the industry.  Many brands offer "jobs" - aka an internship where you cut out fabric all day, scan piles of paper, and go fabric sourcing for unpaid or if you're lucky you'll get lunch pay.  In addition, if you're not living in London then London rent or transport is needed and how are you meant to fund that. Hence why I'm probably not receiving jobs due to being too poor to work for free yet 'under experienced' to get the job, ugh.  Anyway thankfully, for the time being, I still have the motivation to eventually work in the industry, as for now, I want to work on building this blog to discuss topics like this as well as trends and brands.

If this was of any help or you have a question to ask, comment below!

Bron
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10 AFFORDABLE FAUX FUR COATS FOR AW18

1. PrettyLittleThing Cropped Faux Fur Bubble Coat in Red: £55.00  2. Pull & Bear Faux Shearling Biker Jacket in Grey: £49.99  3. H&M Short Pile Coat in Light Beige: £59.99  4. Zara Faux Shearling Bomber Jacket in Pink/ Lilac: £69.99   5. Zara Reversible Bomber Jacket in Dark Khaki: £69.99  6. Zara Soft Faux Fur Coat in Burgandy: £69.99 7. Topshop Faux Fur Coat in Pink: £69.00 8. Boohoo Revere CollarFaux Fur Coat in Grey: £45.00 9. Monki Teddy Trucker Jacket in Navy: £65.00 10. Bershka Faux Shearling Jacket in Stone: £49.99

Faux Fur Coats are my absolute fave in Autumn and Winter and whenever searching for a new coat I always seem to naturally gravitate towards them.  I currently have about 3 faux fur coats, which to me is no way near enough but my mum has other ideas about my coat closet, oops.  Anyway, its finally autumn here and winter is on its way which means one thing.... a new coat is due.  So naturally, I took to the internet to find myself a new coat which will disguise me to look like a fluffy teddy or a new exotic bird.  I am loving the pale pinks and berry shades at the moment with the faux furs as well as the shearling style furs & fabrics.  I would have to say my favourites out of these top 10 picks are number 4 which is this gorgeous dusty brown-pink fluffy bomber style jacket with an oversized collar and elastic hem, but am loving number 9 - the gorgeous dark navy teddy trucker jacket from Monki.  With all of the coats being under £70, I think they are all an absolute steal and are bound to keep you warm this Autumn/Winter!!

Let me know what your favourites are and where you love to buy your Winter coats!!

Bronwyn
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I'M BACK... AND BETTER??

Long time no see...

If you are new here then hi and if you are returning then hi too.  My name is Bronwyn, and I am 21 years old currently living in Kent.  I started this blog wayyyy back in 2013 but neglected it a lot over my time at university and was pretty much way too busy with my coursework I simply had no time to spare, let alone blog.

After spending potentially the best 3 years of my life at uni, and having a fun-filled summer spent travelling around Bali and holiday-ing as much as I can possibly can, I am now a very poor and currently very bored graduate who can't get a job in the fashion but wants to keep up with the ever-growing and changing industry.

At 21 years old I know I don't particularly have the most knowledge on life that I can share with you, however, I would love to share anything that I do know with others, including my adventures, style, travel and lifestyle experience and tips.  I am incredibly keen to travel as much as I can within the next few years and love reading and seeing other bloggers travel guides and best tips, as well as getting inspired from all cultures and style around the world.  Like I mentioned, I am no means an expert in any of these fields but I am certainly passionate about them and love talking about it all.

Thanks for reading and stay posted for more,


Bron
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LIVE PROJECT : COS #23

FRIDAY 19th May :

FASHION SHOW DAY!!! The show was held at the Pavillion in Bournemouth Town Centre.  I watched the show twice and felt incredibly proud to have my work within the show.  With my coa being the first outfit, I couldn't help but feel a sense of pride and joy seeing your hard work be displayed in that way.  It makes me incredibly excited and motivated for next year (my final year at university) and cannot wait to see what next year has in store for me.  Below are some pictures I managed to get of the collection (not the best quality - sorry!!)

LIVE PROJECT : COS #22

MONDAY 15th - THURSDAY 18th May:

This week was all about preparation for the AUB fashion show on Friday 19th.  Our whole year's COS collection was being part of the show and was the opening collection, therefore a lot needed to be organised and ready before the end of the week.  Over the weekend I had gone into town and already collected items that our menswear outfits needed, for example we needed a few extra shoes, as we were borrowing a few mens shoes from our tutor, and a few scarves too.  On the Monday morning, I showed these to the unit leader; Penny , and as she was pleased to see that our group had already thought a lot about the styling of the collection she decided to make me 'styling co-ordinator' for the entire collection (21 outfits!!!) This consisted of 5 menswear outfits, 14 womenswear outfits and 2 kids outfits.

To start off I lined up the entire collection, using the pictures taken on Fridays session, where Ian had also previously numbered these in the order that he wanted the collection to come out on the catwalk. He had also made brief notes of the styling that he wanted to see in the collection, which gave me a rough guideline of what to get and find for the collection.  I set off to town with Penny and fellow class mate; Sakara to find and buy as much of the shoes and styling accessories as possible.  We roughly knew that we wanted a few extra white converse style sneakers, some red heels and stilettos for the women's wear outfits as well as some pinky/nude women's shoes to tie in the pink in the menswear collection.  Primark pretty much had most of the shoes that we wanted; the white sneakers and orange-y red heels that we were primarily looking for.  We then decided to head to H&M and Zara but neither of these shops had any thing suitable, apart from a scarf that we picked up in H&M which had the pinky/nude colours in it as well as the navy blue which featured in one womenswear collection.  New Look was our next shop and after contemplating for 10/20 minutes on whether or not to get the high heels and flats we decided to buy them as they were the closest match to the colour swatches we took with us and were reasonably priced for the budget we had.  We also briefly looked for accessories such as jewellery, however we couldn't find any that we liked, nor that was within the colour scheme of the collection.  For the accessories and shoes the idea was to slowly bring in the red colour that was featured at the end of the collection, and introduce this through the accessories.

When we returned to university we lined up the shoes again but under the images of the outfit that they were going to be paired with.  This gave us a good idea of how well they linked to each outfit, and if it ran smoothly throughout the collection of menswear into womenswear.

In order to introduce the red into the collection a bit earlier on (in the menswear outfits) we decided to paint (using specialist fabric dye paint from the university dye room) and spray paint a few of the shoes too.

This took a few days to organise the shoes and accessories as it was only really Sakara that helped me do this, when it should of an effort made by the entire year, which was a bit annoying at times, however I am proud of the outcome and really enjoyed the styling experience and role that i was given.

On Wednesday I made dresser sheets for the entire collection, including the mens and women's.  This consisted of me taking pictures of every outfit in the collection, and writing brief descriptions of how the dressers should dress the models.  By making dresser sheets it allows the dressers the knowledge of our vision as well as how each garment should be worn and how it should look.  Below are examples...

After dresser sheets were completed I had to bag up each outfit, with the correct shoes, accessories and dresser sheet and place these all on a rail in the order that they went in.  This rail was passed onto the first years so that they could place each outfit on a model number -ready for the show on Friday.

On Thursday I needed to finish off my coat by making a few alterations that had been made aware of in the styling session with Ian on the previous Friday.  These didn't take long to complete and made the garment appear much nicer when on the model. 

LIVE PROJECT : COS #21

FRIDAY 12th :

In the morning we finalised our collection garments, making sure they were steamed, threads all cut, and garments hemmed.  The following evening I had bought hangers that were all the same; so that not only the tutors could help notice what garments were a part of what collection but also to help with continuity throughout the collection too. During the morning, we also all completed all of our spec sheets with our final technical drawings on them, our descriptions, fabric swatches and trim details.  We printed these all off too so that we could place them in the group folder; A3 with clear sheet wallets. We plan to hand these in as a group, as it will contain the details about our collection.

At 1pm we had our styling session with Ian (course leader), as well as Jodie, Penny and Alena (unit leaders). We dressed up all of our outfits on male models that we had 'sourced' from around university campus as well as some being group members friends.  We went into the studio with our mood board of styling ideas, as well as samples of what we would like to style the models with.  The outfits changed throughout the session, in order to see what garments look best with each other and what compliments the other outfits.  We arranged the order of the outfits as well, so that the colours sat well together but also so that all together it looked like a real collection.

We deliberated about accessories and footwear, and decided that we would complete the collection with white converse style shoes, a few scarves (as can be seen in the above image), as well as vintage rounded glasses on a few of the models.  We also agreed that we should make a drawstring style bag out of left over fabrics or potentially leather to tie in with the underlying sporty-aesthetic we wanted to achieve.  Even though all the garments didn't make the final line-up, I am very happy with how it looks together and think it suitably fits with the COS brief and brand aesthetic.  After the male models go on the catwalk the unisex outfit (on the female) will follow, and then so will another female model who wears our teen trousers and another groups womenswear top. This will help blend the male collection into the female collections creating a link between the two.

LIVE PROJECT : COS #20

MONDAY 8th - THURSDAY 11th MAY :

Due to this being our final week of the project at uni, the weeks activities have consisted of making.  As a group we spilt up the outfits and garments to every member of the group so we all knew what we needed to make, who we needed to work/collaborate with, and what needed to be brought in order for the garments to be made; for examples; binding, fabrics and fastening details/parts.  Being the group leader I delegated these areas in accordance to my knowledge of peoples strengths and confidence per garment.  In particular I decided that Sophie (for example) had worked hard on her development of her draped shirt patterns and therefore decided to ask her to make all versions of the shirt and in return give her trousers to someone who's top she was making, thus making it as fair as possible.

I decided that I would make my coat, and trousers and when available help with other group members struggles and difficulties.  At the beginning of the week I focused on my coat.  On my toile I didn't do  a sample of my in seam pocket so therefore I done this first so that when it came to the real fabric I would be confident with what i'm doing.

 

Where I adjusted the collar on my toile and never made a final toile, the pattern seemed a little off on the garment so I plan to adjust this next week with guidance as many tutors had meetings and visits this week.  After I had finished the coat I moved onto my trousers, which were made out of a navy blue stretch jersey...

During the course of making my garments I helped out with other peoples as well, and vice versa.  I think that our group has worked together very well and the majority of us came in every day this week (even on non-timetabled days) which has been very appreciated by myself as the team co-ordinator but aslo from the other group members.  It allowed us to work together and get the tasks done quickly.  In addition, there have been digital tasks that members of the group have done, such as the line plan (Alice) - and she has done a very good job which I fully appreciate as I know it is a tedious and precise job.