Mentors

Graduate Fashion Week 2015

Graduate Fashion Week which is hosted at the Truman Brewery, London, an event that is hosted each year to show selected graduate collections. This is an event where many industry professional come to views work of graduates with work placements and jobs available. This exhibition of work is extremely competitive, just like the fashion industry. When attending the show last year as a second year student, it felt like my years time to show was a life time away. However, with the four day event coming to an end, that time flew by.

We are extremely luckily to have the opportunity to attend GFW, the exposure available at these type of graduate shows are amazing if you use it to your advantage. I had the chance to be on the stand on Monday, the third day of the show. It was import and to keep on track of the stand always making sure it was tidy and presentable, and to keep myself attentive, and presentable at all times, as first impressions are everything. It was a slightly daunting process having to approach people coming onto the stand and starting conversation, many were other students from other university, or students in their first or second years, but its important to make as much of an effort with them as people from industry. I found from my own experience of looking around the stands as a student this year, and last year I felt intimidated by many of the other showing universities, not being spoken too as i was just a student, which made me feel uncomfortable looking through their work. This is not the impression I wanted to give off.

When you are the person from the class working on the stand, you are there  not only represent yourself, but the rest of the class as well. It was important to have an understand of everyones work in the class, but the has become easy to do, as we spend so much time together, you become familiar with everyones individual journeys. I found it a very exciting prospect when people showed interest in someones work within the class, because not only is it a great opportunity for them but also for the rest of the course. When people do well in the class, it reflects back at Colchester School of Art.

Speaking to people about my work gave me the confidence in the project itself and showed me that I can openly speak about myself, what I am doing, and want to achieve. This made me aware that when I go for job interviews I will be able to do this. Even tough design was not the areas I necessarily want to venter into, it was surprising how excited I got, and what a confidence boost I received when getting intreats and positive feedback about my work.

GFW has been a great opportunity for everyone that has been involved, and I hope that it leads to good thing for many in the class. With New Designers still to go, which could potential lead to more exciting opportunity (as we are a heavily printed textile class). Also our stand looked great!

PDP Report

My final major project will be a continuation from my pre collection, Systematic Approach. A term meaning a process used to inform an idea in a logical and step by step procedure, the collection was inspired by sequences and series of data, referencing imagery associated with a family members identity, using the subjects MRI brain scans, text and biological data to create hand printed fabrics. This concept lead me to develop my ideas and to come up with brief for final major project; Who are you? Beautiful Data, visual representations of data collected from an immediate family member. Personal series referencing movement, biological data and life experiences. The entirely hand printed collection will make it impossible to create an identical print, completely unique and individual like the collections main inspiration, the subject.

I am interested in refined and, minimal textiles with detailed elements. A combination of intricate and neat technical processes and a clean, simple colour palette to compliment. I am inspired by people, their journeys and emotions that are attached to this. By creating a collection based on a family member, I have been able to have a connection with the project, which as a result has kept me interested throughout pre collection, making me want to explore this concept in more depth. Hand printed textiles has been a successful process for me throughout second year and going into the third year with my pre collection, so I will be continuing with the technical process of hand painting onto silk screens for printing and screen printing. Working in an organised and precise way has been a success for me and, I will continue working in this manner going into my final major project. My plans for the second semester and the final part of the year at university is to completing an entire collection of fabric samples, making a professional portfolio that I can use when attending job interviews as well as making connections that can be used when starting looking to gain employment.

When starting university, I had the dreams of becoming a print designer, creating designs for fashion, even going into the third year this was still my believed career direction. As the year progressed and I started to understand myself and my style of work, I quickly realised that becoming a print designer was not for me. Reflecting on my career aspirations, I felt that this is a career I should pursue, as why was I doing a fashion and textile course if I did not want to become a fashion or textile designer. I now recognise that the many skills we learn from a Fashion and Textile course do not lead down only two career paths. I thoroughly enjoy hand printed textiles, creating one off, hand painted and printed fabrics. I had very little success in computer aided designs and it is an aspect of the course that I have little interest in, and no desire to continue doing. To be a print designer, one of the most important factors you must obtain are the computer skills, as this is the way the industry is now, and how all prints are designed. Only few fashion houses still have hand print designers, one being high street store Monsoon. My aspiration for my future career actually developed from my part time job outside of university. Working for high street store within the Arcadia brand for 6 years along side education has given my a great opportunity to work within industry, gaining experience and an income, as well as pursuing education to complete a degree programme. The freedom a degree has offered me is something that I would not have got going straight into employment, giving me an opportunity to explore and produce own ideas, challenge and express myself creatively, as well as giving me a disciplined mindset. This has been a topic that I widely researched into for my dissertation, ‘What good is a degree, if you cant get a job?’ It made me analyse the choices I have made and critically think about my future career path. The BA Honours degree has gave me a finalised career I want to pursue after graduation.

The area of the industry I now aspire to work within is visual merchandising for fashion retail. My main job responsibility at work is the store visual merchandiser, having freedom to independently make decisions and complete floor moves, window displays, style file and analysing current store trends and making commercial changes. I have a lot of input in my own store, as well as within the area, regularly being sent to various other stores for refits, style file, and new store openings. It is not a career that you necessarily need a degree to work within, and it seems that experience within the field is a more of an important factor. However, the opportunity to work within the industry has given me the vital experience, while the degree within fashion and textiles has given me a broader understanding that can be translated into many different job roles, the freedom to be creative and most importantly the time in which I have made the decision on my future aspirations.

The actions I have taken so far in searching for jobs within this field has been promising, although as of yet, I have not secured a job for straight after finishing university. Once completing the final demanding year, I will be able to put all my focus into job searching. However, the progress I have made so far with firstly attending an open day at the Fashion Retail Academy, London to receive information and advise for short courses in visual merchandising. The feedback I receive was positive, with the advise from the course leader that with my degree education and current experience, the course would not benefit me, as I am already past the stage in what the teach. This lead me in the decision to immediately start applying for jobs. I have the complete understanding that it is extremely rare to get your ‘dream job’ straight from education, and that starting at the bottom of the career ladder and working up is the way into most jobs, realising this, as well as being ambitious and applying for the dream jobs (no harm in trying!), I have also been completing applications for more realistic job roles to suit my education and experience. By potentially securing a job within the industry, potentially smaller high street stores, it gives me the important first step on the career ladder, and the opportunity to work up from there. Creating a LinkedIn profile, in which I have attached my CV gives me a platform in which I can use to promote myself, creating contacts, as well searching for jobs. It gives me the opportunity to follow the brands that I aspire to work for, to see there current vacancies as well as what they are looking for in a candidate including the experience they require. Creating contacts is vital and can lead to many potential jobs, as the saying goes, its not what you know, its who you know. With this on the mind, creating contacts has become very important to me. By taking every opportunity, I have had to chance to meet and work with many people that I can now go to for advise, or that could could lead me to the right person when looking for employment.

As part of the degree programme at Colchester School of Art, we as students have the amazing opportunity to exhibit our degree work at two London shows, Graduate Fashion Week and New Designers. The graduate shows are where many industry professionals go with jobs ready for new talent, as well as work placement opportunities. These shows give students vitals chances to get noticed by industry, with the shows bridging the gap between education and employment. As well as independent employers, larger companies attend events with work opportunities as well as awards for graduates. For example; Graduate Fashion Week offering awards form sponsor George for ASDA – George Award and the Karen Millen Portfolio Award. While New Designer having opportunities from Companies such as; John Lewis, Tigerprint, Texprint, Hallmark, Sanderson and Harlequin. These graduate shows give chance for selected students to platform their work for promotion, potentially gain employment and create contacts. The work I have created for my final major project has been entirely hand painted onto screens for printing, the hand craft of print is something that is becoming less obvious with digital and even screen printing become widely used, this is something that could potentially make my work be appreciated at the graduate shows, and something that could make me different from many other students. Although I am not necessarily looking for a job in design, I would not turn down the opportunity to exhibit my work as these graduate shows, by taking every chance to show my work and promote myself, as you never know where you meet people and what chances you can get from shows such as these. A question was raised during a presentation about my future career ambitions at university; What would I do if I was offered a job during one of the shows, even though it wasn’t the career I wanted to pursue?, and my response was that I would not turn down any opportunity. I have not had any career experience in design, so really I do not know that I wouldn’t like it, but it is not personally my dream future career.

My immediate intention after finishing university is starting full time employment in the store I currently work within, while instantly putting all my focus in to getting a job within visual merchandising with the intention of moving to London. I will either stay in the store I work until I gain employment, or getting a store transfer so I do not become comfortable in the role and, store I know. My short term goal is working within a visual team, progressing to being independently responsible for own store. My long term goal is to become a field visual merchandiser manager, meaning I would be responsible for a number of store within an area with a team of visuals. The type of store I would love the opportunity to work within are brands such as; All Saints, COS, Whistles and, & Other Stories, or alternately departments store like John Lewis or Selfridges where it is a selection of more luxury brand under one roof. These job roles hold opportunities for travel and, always having a hands on approach to work. I would like to continue working on my own designs as it has been something I have thoroughly enjoyed doing over the three years at university, and it is not something I wish to stop. I want to continue, drawing, printing and making garments, for myself but also using for promotion on platforms such as my arts thread account, by continuing to promote on across different areas of the fashion industry is important but because you should always keep all options open, as you never know what path you could end up on.

The final semester of university has ended up very differently from when starting my final major project only four months ago. Although my concept of my project has stayed the same, the final outcomes has been very different from my original brief. I had originally planned to create a textile collection with fabric lengths, however we had an exciting opportunity to host our end of year fashion show at First Site gallery in Colchester, a big step up from previous shows that had been hosted at the university. As a result of this, a focus was to create garments to partake in the show. My final collection developed to three outfits consisting of 5 garments with supporting fabric samples. As well as the change to the outcome, due to the feedback received from Graduate Fashion Week regarding last years exhibition, portfolios and the display become a huge focus. Lots more time and effort was appointed to creating a high quality work and portfolios as well as beautiful displays to exhibit our work. As a result of this it has been a very successful year which will hopefully lead to exciting prospects for all this years graduates.

Portfolio

I completely underestimated how stressful putting together a portfolio could be, trying to portray you work and yourself in one book has been a very challenging task. I wanted my portfolio to be a true representation of my style, whilst showing the work I have produced in a clear and concise way. My style of displaying work is minimal, giving the opportunity for the print, and work to speak for itself.  This aspect has been something that I have worked on and developed over the 3 years of the degree programme, but I think it has come with confidence in my work that I am able to be selective and embrace my own style. When starting to put together my portfolio, I felt I was constantly comparing my my work to others. I would find myself worrying that my portfolio looked boring in comparison, and the methods of display was so different. But I have now re assumed myself that this is my style of work, and not to compare my work to others. This is what makes us and our work who we are, and it would boring if they all looked the same. I wanted my portfolio to reflect my projects, which come from a scientific backgrounds, so the clean and clinical style portrays this.

Fashion Show – First Site

Colchester School of Art had the amazing opportunity to hold this year fashion show at the First Site gallery, Colchester. This gave us the opportunity to showcase our graduate collections within a professional venue. The large open space, with full length windows perfectly turned into a runway, with seating both sides. The day itself ran smoothly, the first dress rehearsal was on the previous day, and the only run through only hours before the final show itself. Down to the full co-operation of all staff, students and models, the show was a huge success, receiving nothing but positive and encouraging feedback after the show and in the time since.  Not only did it give us a chance to showcase our graduate collections, it was a nice celebration for our final weeks of university. Below shoes imagery taken from second year photography students, the show itself was filmed by Josh Faux, a video that he edited to be shown on loop at Graduate Fashion Week, and a bank of photographer at the end of the runway to capture the show.

Photography: Chris Macdonald

Photography: Christine Cherry

ARTS THREAD

In preparation for finishing university, and showcasing work at London shows such as New Designers and Graduate Fashion Week, I have created an Arts Thread profile in which i have attached selected images from my portfolio. It is a way of online promotion and a form of online portfolio. The internet plays such an important part in todays job market, a way for searching for jobs, and employers looking at you and your work. It is vital that you portray yourself and work in a professional manner as first impressions are everything.

http://www.artsthread.com/profile/dominiquetayor

Photographer’s Pick

The photo shoot images from my final collection have made it onto the photographers website, http://www.kylegalvin.com

Excellent opportunity for my work to be seen by a wider audience from a professional website. The final images are a huge success, not only great final images, but they show the garments incredibly well.

Personal Photoshoot Images

Photographer: Kyle Galvin

Presentation Preparation

As part of our personal development plan, we will be completing presentations to second and third year students on our final major project and, our own future plans after graduation.

After completing my dissertation, ‘What good is a degree, if you cant get a job?’, it lead me to realistically think about my future after university, and that jobs will not be offered to me on a plate just because I have a degree. With 350,000 students graduating this year, and an already overly competitive job market, it will not be a easy road to securing a job. The statement of starting own brand within the months of graduating university is unrealistic as it is naive and does not happen often (those without lots of money just sitting in the bank!), but as part of a creative course, there is a huge focus on self promotion to get yourself and work seen, and a current notorious way of doing this is through social media. Popular platforms include Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr and more direct routes of Artsthread and Linkedin. Putting yourself and your work out in public opens you up to criticism and takes a huge amount of confidence to do so, but it is an aspect that needs to be overcome as its the whole concept of this industry.

Presentations play a significant part of the degree process, although its a part that can be overlooked with practical work. The skills needed for presentations are transferred into work and aspects of life after university. Public speaking, interviews and industry meetings are areas that will be faced after graduation and presenting at university to the and other years is a good introduction. Speaking to the class and second years about our final major project will be good practise in confidently talking about own our collection, in preparation for speaking to industry people at Graduate Fashion Week and New Designers.

Independent Photoshoot

For the third year collection, we have had the opportunity to organise our own photo shoots to promote our collection, and that can be used within our professional portfolios. This has been an independent task separate from the photo shoot with David Lam, that is being used in the years promotional brochure. It also gives the opportunity to gain our own contacts in preparation for leaving university. The photo shoot for my final collection was organised with another student, with a friend from school who is in their final year of university, studying Photography at London College of Fashion. Contacts gained from photo shoot:
Photographer: Kyle Galvin
Model: Anastasia Shev
Make Up Artist and Hair Stylist: Jade Dixon
Studio: London College of Fashion, Lime Grove Road

As the photo shoot was independently lead, we needed to source inspiration for hair, make up and styling, while still fitting into the style of my portfolio. The main inspiration was to keep the images and styling clean and minimal, making the print and garments the main focus while still getting a strong image. The images needed to sit well on the white grounds of the portfolio, so look book or magazine style was the aim of the photo shoot.

The day itself did not run as smoothly as planned. Lots of contributing factors, that were all out of our control, lead to the day being started much later than expected, and as a result only gave us one hour of shooting each for our entire collection. We had to keep professionalism to complete within time frame, completing changes quickly, being confident with the shoots and knowing when to move on. I was able to communicate with Kyle the photographer well, and he fully understood my concept. It was important that I had full confidence in him that he was able to capture the images and hopefully this will show on receiving the images back.

If I had more time shooting, I would have liked to have captured detailed, close up shots of the print, as my specialised field is textile print design, as well as alternating garments to create more looks than just the three. I can overcome close upon the prints by photographing work independently or showing samples within a supporting A1 portfolio.