F.A.D // GRADUATE FASHION WEEK // LONDON FASHION WEEK

greetings luvvies,

Sixth form officially starts again this week...however I have some less depressing things coming up in the next few months of 2016 so stay tuned!!

Wondering what FAD is? Well FAD (Fashion Awareness Direct) is an award-winning charity that offers young people the opportunity to get ahead in their creative careers. They specialise in professional fashion workshops, competitions and live industry experiences. At the beginning of this year I applied for one of their competitions called Fashion Futures. This project equips teenagers with the 'practical skills, knowledge and resilience to pursue a viable career in the creative industries'. And damn does FAD stick to its word. So, after 10 weeks of industry-led, fashion workshops - where the participants work towards their toile (based on the given design brief) - they present their finished toiles and portfolios to a panel of industry experts, who select the Fashion Futures finalists.

Fast forward to September, after an intensive week at University East London creating our finished designs, the 21 finalists see their garments come to life at Fashion Scout during London Fashion Week (f*cking crazy right?!). Weeeell, I might just happen to be one of those finalists...
Can't explain my love and gratitude towards FAD and the amazing experiences it gives young people to explore and experience the fashion industry. AND I'M SO EXCITED FOR LFW!!!

The brief for this year was Fusion; exploring this through India and its subcontinents. We had to produce a design that reflected its culture and its street style and one of the main sources of my inspiration came from Indian architecture and the Mughal temples. Check out my interview with FAD here: FAD story 

Me at UEL and the top part of my jumpsuit!

A few months ago I was lucky enough to attend Graduate Fashion Week which I found really amazing and inspiring. It was great fun looking around the uni stalls and gawking over all the portfolios. Whilst I was there I attended the launch of the website INTOfashion which was really cool. I'd definitely recommend it to anyone who is interested in pursuing a career in fashion or who just wants to explore the broad range of paths within the industry. Sometimes I feel as if there is this misconception that the fashion industry is really narrow and all it entails is making dresses. Noooooo ahah, not at all.

Here's a few pics from the day - regretfully, I don't have the names of these wonderful designers, but these are amongst my faves:

portfolio appreciation:

tbh, looking back on 2016 it wasn't all that bad...in terms of fashion and getting to know what direction (study wise) I want to go in. It's a long journey but u know what, you will get there n somehow realise what path suits you or just where your heart is lingering. But it does take a lil time. Honestly if I hadn't signed up for Fashion Futures, let alone chosen textiles for a-level, I probably wouldn't know that I wanted to study fashion. If you take your time, explore and try new things it will contribute!! Towards the end of this year I've felt some sort of creativity brewing so lets hope that in 2017 it fully manifest itself. My advice is to take ur time n try everything that comes your way. 

What are you guys' goals for these last few months? 

Cleo xx