recent grads.

If you haven't been around Twitter today, you'll have missed fashion156 sparking a debate into graduates and job opportunities.

They tweeted:

"Open question to graduates. Do you feel equipped to secure the kind of job in the industry you desire. If not what are your concerns?"

...which led to a post on the fashion156 blog.

Of course, this is a debate which concerns me on every level. I emailed f156 my view on education in fashion (too much for a tweet)...

"I've just graduated from Northumbria University's fashion course. I obviously can't speak for other courses but Northumbria does focus a lot on portfolio and links with industry (we have year in industry as part of the course and a placement officer who deals only with finding student placements and advertising graduate jobs.) We (generally) have quite a good rate of employment, which I think is down to experience. I've been applying for lots of jobs in the past few weeks and even entry level positions want people with experience. If you haven't come from a course with a placement scheme of some sort, you might struggle to find paid work in the industry. I chose to travel after doing 5 months with a supply company and now I'm looking into doing another unpaid placement so I have a full years experience at different places.

From seeing other unis work at Graduate Fashion Week, it seems as though lots of courses focus on a high-end market (and final collections - lots of those shown were very 'catwalk', which might be impressive but isn't what buyers/employers are looking for in order to sell!) and don't focus on portfolio skills etc as much as we do - many of the other unis didn't have full portfolios out or took up much more of the stand with garments, and I think this is a huge mistake as most graduates aren't going to find paid work in the high-end and would likely struggle to start their own business too. "

(Slightly edited...)

...but since seeing some more responses I've got more to add.

Over four years on the course I've heard a lot of my coursemates complain about our course for various reasons, but we seem to have it really good - Co-operative Designs tweeted the following to f156:

"damn straight. Most knitwear students dont even get taught how to knit a jumper. shocking!"

...and was instantly incredibly thankful for everything my course has taught me. We weren't at all taught about digital communication (another thing f156 mentioned) - but on a design course (rather than marketing/communication), I'm not surprised about that.But we are taught how to pattern cut, and sew, and use Adobe programs to professional standard. The print students know how to screen print, and the knitwear students know how to knit (even those who only take knitwear option in fourth year), and our final collections are made by us ourselves (with help from the technicians, but 99% of collections are made in the studio on campus) - which I know isn't the case for all unis.

I think people in the industry know this about Northumbria and that puts me in a good position, but even so, people want to know you have the experience.

I think the reality is, you need education AND experience in order to get anywhere. For the majority of jobs I've applied for, they look at your CV and covering letter and that's it. No work examples - no portfolio, no collection, no anything. You have to impress in text.

This might all be terrible news for new graduates, for people already enrolled on fashion courses, or for people starting a fashion course in September, but hopefully it's better to know the reality of the situation - and what you can do about it - now.

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I hope this doesn't sound really Northumbria-biased, but obviously, I don't know about other unis enough to talk about them. Fellow Northumbrians (on any design course), I'd love to hear your opinions; but I'd especially love to hear from students/recent grads from other places...

a very[.co.uk] angry note

If you're a regular facebook user and a fashion fan - and you're here, so I would assume both these things to be true - you might've seen very.co.uk's latest promotion.

The online department store is hiring! On facebook, that is. I'll let them explain themselves:

If you know a thing or two about fashion then enter Very.co.uk’s comp to be in with a chance of winning an amazing job for a year! If you win you’ll become one of our V-Team, and that means attending fashion shows, designing a collection, rubbing shoulders with celebs and sharing your style with the world! (Tell all your friends and share the joy – you might need them when you’re canvassing for votes!).

Just when you thought this competition could not get any better, you will be paid for doing it! Do you have enough votes to get the job?

That was enough to annoy me, but I could almost let it slide given that it just appeared to be a competition.

But then, recently (as you can imagine), I've been trawling job sites trying to find a job - something, anything that is a suitable job for me, and this - THIS - has been advertised as a legit job with a "click to apply" link taking you to the facebook page.

NO, VERY. NOT COOL.

If this was a legit job, and they were just using facebook to advertise the position, well, that would be fantastic. It is difficult to find entry level jobs in fashion, and well advertised jobs would be much appreciated, but not if the successful applicant will be the one with the most likes.

There is no screening process.

Anyone can enter.

It is basically a popularity contest.

In an industry which has TENS OF THOUSANDS of QUALIFIED people - not just this years graduates, but young designers all over the country - desperately searching for a job to suit them, I find it inconceivable that Very think it's fine to offer a position which includes 'designing a collection' to whoever has the most likes. A job is not a popularity contest, and this competition seems to be playing into the (apparently) widely held opinion that 'anyone can be a designer'.

sea within a sea.

mm, Horrors title.
which is kind of approps, since this graduate collection could almost be the get-up of a lady-Horror. maybe. if the Horrors were from the 90s. maybe.
=/.

given my 'wooo the 90s!*' stance right now, and also the thoughts of 'argh i'll be a graduate this time next year wtfffff' and 'oh god i have to do a collection, i should really be doing my sketchbooks right now' that pop up on a daily basis, any graduate collection which includes 90s influences appeals instantly.
well, i'm automatically interested in any graduate collection, just to see what i've got to live up to, but ones I love are even better, if more intimidating.
this is all a roundabout way of saying, "hey, check out Westminster graduate Hannah Sea's collection, dude."

woah, back up now - sheer, fuzzy, awesome proportions, great details (button up centre back on a skirt, yessum), check prints that are tartans, but not quite. smoky tartans? idk. the boots and bags are awesome too:

if you've been reading this blog for a while (and I know a bunch of y'all haven't - hey new followers, btw, I just hit 60 ^_^), you'll know how big a fan of fash illustrations I am, which is why I love graduate 'season' so much - LOTS of grad collections find their way to the internet/blogs with their portfolio images attached. it just so happens that Hannah's are wonderful:

pic-a-tures from style bubble

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*woo to anything 90s, really. i was gonna say grunge but it's not that limited. also woo the 70s and woo 80s punk/goth styles, too. some sort of mix of the three. idk.

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heyheyheyhey >>>> vote

on the ol' joanna

Joanna Vanderpuije doesn't have a website. Hey, young designers, you gotta give up the info sometimes, yeah?
I'll let it slide, though, because her designs kinda speak for themselves.
A Central St Martins graduate (of both the BA and MA courses!), Joanna has worked for McQueen, Jonathon Saunders and Diane von Furstenburg, and works with prints and, in this collection (SS10), awesome embellishments.

Below: perspex embellishments on cotton; and again on a suede shift. Screen printed dress over a double layered chiffon skirt (LOVE); and the screen print on a jacket, teamed with a leather bra. Then some NUDE MAXIS; YEAH BOIII. One with net insert; one in pleated chiffon (and then styled with a leather cut out skirt over it; major love.)

So yeah, she's pretty awesome, if hard to find info on. Course this means I have no stockist info either....

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loops and bounds

See, now, I did tell you it was knitwear week. Clearly I am a bit of a fan of loopy types...

This is Derek Lawlor, S/S10, another CSM (MA) graduate, who uses wax cord to make his embellishments. Vidi:

Loving; properly properly loving; the cropped jumpers and vests, particularly the one up top. And in look 4. And 7. Yesyesyes. All very futuristic and stuff.

No news yet on stockists, but fingers crossed pieces will get some distribution!

And some more looks - I think from his graduate collection; don't quote me on that. A little Pugh-esque, a little monochromatic. Don't love it as much as the above looks, but it's still loadsa awesome.

pictures and stuff from knitkicks and fashion156

colonial

Hey! Guess what's out! The source of many a post last month; fashion 156's new issue...

Ada Zanditon is an LCF graduate off of last year, having done some placements up at McQueen and Jonathon Saunders. These lovely bits and bobs are S/S10 (entitled 'The Colony'), but A/W10 will be about soon, as she's showing at Vauxhall Fashion Scout on Feb 23rd...

Catwalk shots...

Lookbook shots...

I adore the light and airy dress/tunic/top affair off of the first lookbook image, and the first catwalk image is like...perfection. Fitted deep blue-y-purple crop with light grey-y, criss-crossy printed trews? (trews = trousers = totes my fave new word, btw.)

Here's some of the graduate collection, too - these've been featured up on Style Bubble, I believe. Well I know. Given that Ada has a press section on her site, including Ms. Bubble's bit o' post.

Lovely printing and pleating and volume. The second one is gaga-licious, if ever there was anything not Haus of Gaga that could be that gaga-licous.

Also adoring the jewellery:

Chunky wonderful-ness!

PS: Here's the fashion156 orig. photo. This shoot is awesome, as are most of em. I am, of course, debating putting the whole thing up. Again. But I think I'll refrain, and just tack the pics onto the end of posts on the different artistes.

leather bound

More sketchbook includees - I fully intend to post a bit about uni stuff now I'm back there, FYI. We've got a great project! Anyhoo, Une Burke is a London College of Fashion graduate, with an MA in Fashion Artefact (...?).

Working in leather (here vegetable dyed to mimic skin colour), she aims to create wearable art - in this final collection, she chose to do pieces which embody the 'cause, the physical and psychological effect and the healing stages of human trauma'.

Stunning construction and shapes, non? I love the studs; that they're necessary to the piece (to hold it together) but placed in such an aesthetically pleasing way...

A lil' drawing I did from the Numero shoot this was included in...

PS, totally an actual journalist now, haha - I'm contributing a fashion page to the next Northumbria student magazine. Think I'm doing uni street style; it's literally all very exciting.