Part of the Fiery Fashion Series.
Hello again lovely readers! Today I’ve got the second part of my overview of my three years on a fashion course. My second year at university was definitely my favourite year. The first year was rather daunting and my third year was full of stress. I think you’ll find this with most courses at university. Your second year will be the time when you are most comfortable. I felt that in my second year I had a bit more creative freedom than in the first year, but a lot less pressure than in the third year.
One of the major changes from the first year work-wise was that we had to pick between knit and millinery as our specialist skill to continue developing. I chose knit, because even though it was majorly hard, I felt it would be more valuable to me as a designer than making hats. I’m not sure how many fashion courses do these kinds of subjects anymore, but I found it quite valuable.
In terms of work, I found that there was an increase in the amount of work, but also the kind of work we were getting. You’ll be expected to be a lot more independent with your work, but it’s also nice to have a bit more freedom with what you’re doing. Another thing I really enjoyed about my second year was that all my separate lessons began to link in with each other a lot more – the projects we were designing in one lesson, we got to make up properly in the sewing lesson.
In sewing we began to focus on using different types of fabric, rather than just plain calico, which was challenging, because I hadn’t worked with a lot of different fabrics before. If I had my way, I’d just make everything in medium-weight fabric and avoid fraying knit or slippery chiffon! We also went on to learn more advance pattern cutting/sewing techniques and how to model on the stand (pattern cut off a mannequin). I did one of my favourite projects ever in my second year design class, which was trend prediction, in which we learnt to analyse future events (ranging from films, to sport, to space events!) and tried to predict a trend from them. I ended up doing a vintage Doctor Who themed capsule collection. Another major project in my second year was beginning my dissertation proposal and starting to seriously plan my dissertation subject and research techniques, etc.; that’s when it all began to sink in that it was getting very serious!
This is only a short post, as the second year was really just building up on skills we had learnt from the first year. The next post on the third year will be a lot longer, as there is so much to cover. As always, please feel free to email/tweet/facebook me. I love getting feedback from you guys, and I hope you have a lovely day!
About Author: Laura Brandon is a 22-years old Fashion graduate currently living in London. She blogs about being a Fashion student, fashion brands/trends/looks and beauty products, etc. She’s just started up a jewellery/craft business (check it out on Facebook) and she’s also looking for fashion/writing related jobs. She’s hoping to publish a book based on this series one day. See more of her work on her blog here.
