Thursday 5 May 2016

Searching For An Internship

I started looking on the website;London Fashion Week, to find suitable London based designers to intern for. I would have liked to intern abroad for designers such as; Ann Demeulemeester, Thom Browne, Alice and Olivia etc, however I couldn't for financial reasons. Instead, I started looking for young, London based womenswear designers with a small business. I wanted to work for a designer with a fresh take on modern design that is likely to give me more responsibility than a more established business. 

I emailed designers with a similar style to my own; high fashion, ready-to-wear, practical but with interesting textiles and fabrication. I like fashion that represents powerful femininity, silhouettes that are away from the body whether they are structural or drape.

The list of designers/ brands that I emailed; Mary Benson, Jaeha, Lulu Liu, Jamie Wei Huang, Georgia Hardinge, Gayeon Lee, Fyodor Golan, Gabriel Vielma, Felder Felder, Eudon Choi, Danielle Romeril, Faustine Steinmetz.   

An example of one of my Cover Letters;


Dear Jamie Wei Huang,


My name is Nina Sabah and I am in my second year doing Fashion BA (Hons) at Ravensbourne. As part of my course we must find ourselves a full time work placement for 9 weeks anytime after the week commencing Monday 11th April 2016. 

I think this experience will give me a valuable insight into working in industry, to help me make a decision on my ambitions for the future. Mostly, I enjoy design development and textiles design, however, I would like to improve my knowledge on pattern cutting and gain an understanding of the pressures of running a business. I would appreciate it if you could consider me to intern for you.

I particularly like the combination of your choice of colour, fabrication and textiles. I like that your designs are wearable but still pushing the boundaries of what the modern day silhouette is. This is how I would like to portray my designs in the future. I think I can learn a lot from a young designer such as yourself with a fresh take on contemporary design.

Skills
·      Research- how to collect good primary and secondary research and construct it into mood boards, customer muse board and colour/fabric board.
·      Concept development- drawing, painting, creating structures, multi media pieces, abstracting my work.
·      Design development- Stand work, illustrations and toiles.
·      Textiles- print design, constructed textiles, laser cutting and embroidery.
·      Basic pattern cutting skills
·      Skills in Photoshop and Illustrator- I am also able to do technical specifications.

My CV is attached to this email. My portfolio can be found via this link; 
 I can be contacted on 07468452460 or my email is n.sabah@students.rave.ac.uk .
Thank you for your time. 

Kind regards,


Nina Sabah


Jo Eaton, Ravensbourne's industry liaison, helped me to structure the strongest CV and cover letter possible. My Cover letter includes my profile, what I am good at and what I would like to improve on. I wrote a bit on why I liked them and why I would like to work for them. My skills set was copied straight from my CV, this was just in case they didn't read my CV before they emailed me back. I put the pages of my portfolio onto the website Flicker and copied the link onto my cover letter to give the designer or brand the option to make an informed decision based on the quality of my work.  

A copy of my CV was also attached to the cover letter;


Nina Sabah
Name; nina sabah
Email; n.sabah@students.rave.ac.uk
Mobile; 07468452460

Profile

I am currently a student in my 2nd year Fashion BA (Hons) at Ravensbourne.
Skills;
·      Research- how to collect good primary and secondary research and construct it into mood boards, customer muse board and colour/fabric board.
·      Concept development- drawing, painting, creating structures, multi media pieces, abstracting my work.
·      Design development- Stand work, illustrations and toiles.
·      Textiles- print design, constructed textiles, laser cutting and embroidery.
·      Basic pattern cutting skills
·      Skills in Photoshop and Illustrator- I am also able to do technical specifications.


Education
       Fashion BA (Hons) at Ravensbourne- September 2014- present
-       Pattern cutting unit- I applied and developed the skills I gained in foundation such as; effective mood boards, concept development, design development; using stand work as well as being taught the basics in pattern cutting.
-       Textiles unit- I progressed my skills in constructed textiles and print design, using photoshop and illustrator to create repeat and placement prints, and learnt how to use the embroidery and laser cutting machines.
-       VF Denim Project- The company, VF, gave Ravensbourne Fashion students in my year an external brief on denim during the summer 2015. This was for a chance to win £2500. I was one of ten that was chosen to present to the company. It gave me an idea of what it is like to present in industry and how being clear about your concept, ideas and development is important. Following the VF denim project, we were put into groups to do a VF project part 2. As a team of 4, we had to come up with a high fashion denim brand, taking into consideration, branding and store layout as well as coming up with a line-up and a made final garment.
-       Holly Fulton Brief- Sticking to Holly Fulton’s aesthetics; vibrant colours and heavily textiles based, mainly in digital print. I had to produce, 13 textiles samples and 2 garments. This project was by far the most challenging for me; this was the first time I produced completed garments and the project also challenged my time management skills.
-       Ravensbourne Foundation in Fashion and Textiles- September 2013- June 2014 - Merit- I developed skills in researching effectively, concept development, design development, print design, illustrating designs, design development.
-       A levels at Lancing College- September 2011- June 2013- Fine art - I received a grade A- the course pushed my abilities in drawing and painting, having a 2-hour life drawing class a week. I did projects on structures, lino printing, multi media pieces and colour. I was also taught history of art.


Work experience- September 2014- June 2015
In my first year I was assigned to a 3rd year student to help them with their work. Discovering the process of creating a collection made me realize how important organization and time management is in the fashion industry. This experience also gave me the opportunity to help dress at Graduate Fashion Week. This was a valuable experience and gave me an insight to the last minute pressures before a catwalk show.

The designer Lulu Liu and the brand Jaeha got back to me and asked to met for an interview. 

No comments:

Post a Comment