A guide to help prepare you for your next year at Fashion School
Summer is a great time to recap any skills you have previously learnt or teach yourself new techniques. This will make you feel more confident in those skills and allow you to take the methods you have learnt and show them off in your work in your next year of Fashion school.
Below are six ideas to try and test out over the summer:
1. Practise Fashion Illustration Techniques
In the process of creating garments/ accessories, Illustration is used to communicate your ideas into a visual form. This will help you and whoever you are showing, to understand how your ideas will look as a product.
Also, Fashion Illustration can be the art of sketching existing products from Fashion Designers. Companies such as Vogue use Illustrators to create pictures of products that will feature in their magazines, websites, and blogs etc.
When it comes to illustrating, the more you practise the better you become. Reading books such as 'Fashion Illustration and Design by Manuela Brambatti' or watching videos such as 'Haypaige's Tricks and Tips' class, can give you useful techniques to practise. You do not need to follow their guidelines exactly, as you can tweak their information to create your own style.
Techniques to practise can include:
Drawing models: Have a go at drawing models of all different shapes and sizes. More diversity is being shown on the catwalk now than ever and it is crucial to increase this.
Drawing faces: This creates a more realistic look to the sketched models, which will enable you to visualise how your product will look on real people.
Practise drawing difficult fabrics: Certain fabrics such as lace are hard to perfect, so it is important to keep practising to create a more realistic finish.
Experiment with different materials: To find your own illustration style it takes a lot of experimenting with different materials to know which works best for you.
2. Read Fashion Related Books
If you enjoy reading then there are some great books which can teach you all about the Fashion industry, written by the people who are apart of it. By reading these books it gives you a real insight into the industry and can help you understand how to prepare for it.
One book which does just that is 'Becoming a Fashion Designer' by Lindsay Peoples Wagner.
Throughout the book, she talks about three different designers and how they have broken into the Fashion Industry and sustained a name for themselves. She also gives great advice on how to create a business plan, if you were thinking about creating your own brand.
Other books to read about the Fashion industry and business include:
3. Go Exploring
Whether you are travelling abroad this summer, taking a break in the UK or having a staycation, do some exploring of the places that are around you (even your garden) and take photographs. You could even draw your surroundings to practise your illustration skills.
These photographs and sketches can inspire your next project, where you can use them as primary research. When starting a new project, having lots of primary research shows how you are using original ideas.
When taking photographs, look beyond the big tourism locations and capture the places which you see no one taking any notice of. This is more likely to generate unique inspiration.
These are some pictures that I had taken in my garden using my phone. I used Photoshop to create some cool layouts which you can test out using a free trial.
4. Get Yourself Sewing
Summer is a time when you can re-learn sewing techniques you have previously studied or teach yourself new methods, by watching help videos or searching up instructions. You could practise methods such as testing out different hem and seam finishes or even types of ruffles, pleats, pockets or inserting zips.
You can also break free from the instructions and experiment, creating unique techniques that you have not seen before. This can help you to be prepared for the next year of School/ University by having original ideas that you can show off in your work.
An example of the patchwork denim I have been sewing to create a skirt:
5. Gain Knowledge on the Future of Fashion
Many Designers are taking the time to reconsider their approach to the way they operate, thinking about ways they can slow down their processes and become more sustainable. It is important to keep up with the future of Fashion if you want to be apart of it. By doing so you can demonstrate within your work that you are moving forward with the times and are not getting stuck behind.
Articles and videos to watch to better your knowledge:
Where The Future of Fashion is Headed- VPRO documentary:
Edward Enniful, Marc Jacobs and Stella McCartney Discuss The Future of Creativity:
6. Create your Fashion page on Social Media
Take the time to create a page on social media, whether it be Facebook, Instagram or even Twitter, to showcase any Fashion work that you have previously done or that you are doing. By creating this page you are getting your work out there for an audience to see which will help build your confidence in presenting your work.
To gain followers on the social media account it is important to do the following:
Place a link of the page in your main account bio or make a post on your story/ feed, asking your followers to go check out your Fashion account.
Ask your friends to shout out the page on their social media to catch the attention of their followers, potentially persuading them to give your page a follow.
Follow other smaller Fashion pages who do not have many followers themselves as they are likely to follow you back as they appreciate the support.
Comment on the comment sections of posts on Fashion pages with larger followings, asking people to check out your work. Copy and paste this comment on many different posts, to capture lots of attention.
Here is an example piece of work from my Fashion Page on Instagram that I have just started up. I have been using these tips to help gain more of an audience:
While practising your Fashion skills is important, you must also remember to yourself a break and not think about work all the time over summer.
I hope you have found this blog useful and it has given you some thoughts about what you can be doing over the summer. Please like and subscribe to the page below to get updates on the blog.
- Liv x