Hello
there! I finished my first year at university last week which is not only crazy
in terms of how fast the time has gone, but also left me itching to share my
experience of studying fashion. I’m planning a couple of other more general
university posts sharing my thoughts on leaving home, living in halls and the
do’s and don’ts I’ve learnt along the way but I also wanted to do a very
specific post focusing on what I study. In case anyone doesn’t follow me on
Twitter then you may not know but I have been studying Fashion Communication
and Promotion at the University of Huddersfield as a first year student! I’m
hoping to make this post a general overview of studying a creative course
related to fashion however in some aspects it will specifically apply to the
university I attend in terms of modules etc as this is the experience I have
had! At the end of this post I’m going to share which other universities I
looked around or applied to in case you’re considering a similar course and
want to have a browse around at open days or online! Apologies in advance for
the length of this post but I’m going to be aiming for something that’s as
informative as possible; applying and deciding on a course for university can
be SO daunting so I hope this is somewhat helpful!
Why did I choose the course?
When deciding
on the course you wish to study for 3 years at university, the whole process
can be stressful, from ensuring the subject itself is right for you to
narrowing down university choices to just 5 options on UCAS. I have always been
an avid blog reader, YouTube watcher and all round fashion lover so realising
this was a subject I could actually study academically as well as enjoy in my
spare time was super exciting! Despite this, I found the process of narrowing down
courses quite the challenge. I knew I wanted to work more on the commercial
side of fashion rather than design, which is so often what most universities
offer. I’m a very creative person but have never been very talented in the way
of drawing or textiles and so design was never something I wanted to do. The
easiest way to explain the contents of my course is that I’m learning about all
the processes that happen to clothing and in the industry after the garments
have been designed and produced. In first year we’ve looked at PR, marketing,
styling and working with photographers, trend research and fashion writing and
journalism. The course is SO varied which was one of the reasons I applied for
Huddersfield as my first choice; I’m not entirely sure which part of the fashion
industry I want to go into after graduation but I deffo feel like the range of
topics I’ve been studying will open up so many options because of knowledge I
will acquire in a range of areas! Also this course offers a one-year placement
working in the industry which was the real deal breaker! Having experience in
the fashion world is SO vital so this was the main reason I chose Hudds!
My options were fairly limited when it came to actually narrowing down courses I was able to apply for; I didn't want to complete an art foundation year which is what SO many courses of this type require, even if there is no aspect of design or textiles! This was a really frustrating part of UCAS application as I was limited to the 4 or 5 universities linked at the end of this post. I found I couldn't be fussy with location, accommodation or what the town had to offer in terms of shops or pretty instagramable brunch locations (essential). Perhaps why I haven't be quite so happy is because of not feeling like my qualifications and needs of a university course met any of the options available. I desperately wanted to do a year in industry, not be too far from home and in a place I felt comfortable AND not do an art foundation. I might have made things hard for myself but what I'm trying to say is you probably need to be aware that compromise is going to be something you most likely have to do when university applying.
Creating a portfolio:
Someone just asked me on Twitter to add in a little section about my portfolio so here ya go! At Huddersfield we were just asked to bring along any work we thought was relevant and thought would link to the course/show our interest in it as well as any general creative work. I brought an A3 folder with some final prints of my A level photography work in which my (now) tutor seemed to really like; I think it impressed her that I had a lot of Photoshop experimentation in there including some portraits with flower overlays I had played around as well as general fashion-y images that had gone towards my AS levels. I also made some A3 boards on Photoshop with some info on my blog, personal facts and interests and some screenshots of my Instagram/photographs from my blog. I think this was the main thing she really liked because I had obviously spent a lot of time collecting information and putting it all together in a pretty way and she could see I was enthusiastic about studying there.
I know a lot of fashion courses require work from an art foundation/art A level which I didn't have but if you study photography or graphic design work from those subjects would definitely be appropriate. We only spent about 5 minutes going over my work and the rest of the interview was questions and a general chat so if you're applying for a similar course I wouldn't stress as much about a portfolio like you might do for very creative subjects like art!
My options were fairly limited when it came to actually narrowing down courses I was able to apply for; I didn't want to complete an art foundation year which is what SO many courses of this type require, even if there is no aspect of design or textiles! This was a really frustrating part of UCAS application as I was limited to the 4 or 5 universities linked at the end of this post. I found I couldn't be fussy with location, accommodation or what the town had to offer in terms of shops or pretty instagramable brunch locations (essential). Perhaps why I haven't be quite so happy is because of not feeling like my qualifications and needs of a university course met any of the options available. I desperately wanted to do a year in industry, not be too far from home and in a place I felt comfortable AND not do an art foundation. I might have made things hard for myself but what I'm trying to say is you probably need to be aware that compromise is going to be something you most likely have to do when university applying.
Creating a portfolio:
Someone just asked me on Twitter to add in a little section about my portfolio so here ya go! At Huddersfield we were just asked to bring along any work we thought was relevant and thought would link to the course/show our interest in it as well as any general creative work. I brought an A3 folder with some final prints of my A level photography work in which my (now) tutor seemed to really like; I think it impressed her that I had a lot of Photoshop experimentation in there including some portraits with flower overlays I had played around as well as general fashion-y images that had gone towards my AS levels. I also made some A3 boards on Photoshop with some info on my blog, personal facts and interests and some screenshots of my Instagram/photographs from my blog. I think this was the main thing she really liked because I had obviously spent a lot of time collecting information and putting it all together in a pretty way and she could see I was enthusiastic about studying there.
I know a lot of fashion courses require work from an art foundation/art A level which I didn't have but if you study photography or graphic design work from those subjects would definitely be appropriate. We only spent about 5 minutes going over my work and the rest of the interview was questions and a general chat so if you're applying for a similar course I wouldn't stress as much about a portfolio like you might do for very creative subjects like art!
The modules involved:
As I said I’m
hoping to make this post as general as possible when discussing studying fashion
but of course modules will vary between universities! These are the modules I have
been studying at Huddersfield and in some cases probably will overlap with
other courses but be aware a lot of the uni’s I looked at differ in terms of
content! I studied 5 modules during my first year:
-Fashion
promotion (+ digital promotion)
-Fashion writing
-Fashion
industry
-Fashion
marketing
-Fashion history
and contemporary context
I’m going
to go a little into some of the assignments involved in each module so you can
get a more specific and detailed idea of what each involves; I think my
favourites have been fashion promotion and fashion writing!
-Fashion
promotion: This module also has a digital aspect which I’ve loved (I’m fully
obsessed with InDesign, such fun) as well as the traditional PR section. In
digital promotion we’ve worked on developing our own window display design using
Google Sketch Up as part of a live brief with Kolocraft and New Look and have also
put together a range of design and research boards as part of this, learning
about visual merchandising and promotion. As part of the same collaboration we
created, we were tasked with creating an event plan for the launch of our
created collaboration discussing the concept behind it, an event timeline and
detailed media list of relevant journalists/press that are relevant for the
event! As part of this I used InDesign to create a press pack and invitation to
house the information and present it in a way that was in line with the
collaboration theme and ‘look’ of the brand.
In first term
we created a promotional booklet for an up-and-coming new designer and were
taught about using InDesign, Photoshop and Illustrator. In general, I felt the
sessions we had on the programmes were fairly short and so I’ve been spending a
lot of time this term working things out for myself, googling tutorials and
overall experimenting. It’s so helpful if you already have experience with
Adobe but of course not essential.
Fashion
writing: I’ve absolutely loved this module! In first term we wrote an essay
titled “How has the fashion media changed in the last decade and how is it continuing
to change? What affect do these changes have on the power of the fashion media?”
which I loved researching and writing and ended up getting 90/100! I ran a poll
on Twitter with some questions for primary research and had so much positive
feedback about my questions and how interesting the topic was so it was a
really great first assignment for university! This term we worked on a
collection of fashion writing examples in which we had to research a variety of
publications and work on writing pieces for each that were appropriate for the
audience of the magazine and the style they are written in. The types of pieces
we had to write included a blog post, a men’s and women’s feature article,
newspaper piece, runway review and an editor’s letter! I really loved this assignment
because we had the freedom to put together the pieces on InDesign and design
them in the way that they would appear should they be in the magazine irl. Just
for reference in case this is of interest to anyone, the essay word count was
1500 and the writing examples totalled to 2500.
Fashion industry:
This has been the most varied module for sure and was probably the most challenging.
We have worked on compiling fabric files with swatches of about 50 fabrics plus
detailed descriptions of each. We also had a project collaborating with first
year photography students on a styling photoshoot in which we had to source
models, clothing, props and create a concept for the shoot as well as mood and
styling boards. We have had to create and regularly add to critical journals
which document ‘A year in Fashion’ through newspapers, online content, exhibition
visits we had been to and our own independent work. Last week we presented a
topic from our critical journals to the rest of the course which wasn’t really
my favourite assignment as im not the best with public speaking; I spoke on
fashion and social change and am crossing my fingers it went okay! We also had
a presentation during term 1 after we had tracked a specific trend through
consumer press, trend intelligence specialists and trade publications which was
equally as nerve wracking but turned out well in the end!
Fashion
marketing: Despite being very apprehensive about this module having never
studied marketing before, I have really enjoyed the work for it! We began the
module in term 2 and were briefed on a group assignment in which we had to
create our own brand in competition to Topshop and create a business plan/report
for it. We had 6 weeks of lectures before being left to write the report in
groups discussing its marketing mix, store location and reasoning, store
layout, the type of product we would sell, prices, quality and parts of our
brand that would make us stand out in comparison to competitors. This assignment
was a total of 3000 words and I overall found writing collaboratively and
creating a brand with extensive rationale and reasoning behind decision making
really enjoyable!
Fashion
history and contemporary context: The final module I have studied was joined by
students from all other fashion courses at the university including fashion
design and marketing and fashion costume making for a really varied range of
people. Our first assignment involved listening to a different speaker and
topic each week and uploading blog posts with our thoughts, own research and
images over 5/6 weeks which I enjoyed as the work was spaced out weekly and a
blog was a really fun way to document our ideas. We have also written an essay
for this module which was a choice of 6 questions and finally put together a
group project around the concept or adornment and body modification, asking if
the body can be used as a language. Our group presented ours as a magazine
which was again really fun in terms of layout and digital presentation!
Negatives or aspects of the course I haven’t
enjoyed:
-As with
any course, group work can always be stressful when it comes to organsing
different roles and getting a fair contribution from each member. This is
definitely something I have struggled with, particularly when working with
individuals from other fashion courses as we have different timetables,
deadlines and assignments. Although it’s nice to mix with others and get a
different fashion perspective, I found it really challenging to work with
people who weren’t committed or organised. This isn’t really specific to my
course but definitely something to be aware of if you’re a perfectionist like
me; it’s been challenging working with others who care a lot less about grades
and the outcome of work. In some ways it’s been helpful in me emerging as a ‘leader’
of the group and trying to organise work but in general it was stressful and
something I hope will be different in second year!
-I have
also found when studying fashion that my university tutors did make some
assumptions about our knowledge of certain topics or general skills, particularly
when it came to digital work. Having never studied fashion academically I found
it tricky being thrown in at the deep end with an expectation of knowing how to
complete a range of tasks, but again, it has been useful in developing my
independence and learning to push myself.
Despite the
challenges of first year, I’ve found studying Fashion Communication and
Promotion overall REALLY enjoyable! I’ve struggled a lot with university life
in general however that has mainly been linked to moving away/making friends
etc which I’m thinking of doing another post on! My course has been one stable aspect
of my life since moving away and even though ive not overly enjoyed first year,
I am really looking forward to getting my grades back and starting the
challenges of fashion in second year. If you have any other questions about my
course etc then feel free to tweet me @charl0ttesweb or email me on charlotterollin8@gmail.com!
Other
universities I looked at:
Nottingham
Trent
Northumbria
Ravensbourne
Manchester Metropolitan
