Image from BA (Hons) Fashion Promotion student Emma Fazakerly
The BA14 Media Exhibition opens today featuring work from across our School of Media and Communication. As part of our Class of 2014 series we are showcasing the work of graduating students whose work will be featured in the exhibition. Here BA (Hons) Fashion Promotion (now BA (Hons) Strategic Communication for Fashion) student Emma Fazakerly talks to us about the importance of internships and becoming industry ready.
LCF: What have you enjoyed most about studying at LCF?
Emma Fazakerly: The freedom of the course has allowed me to explore various mediums through which to present my work. The tutors and other students generate a real atmosphere of creativity and we are encouraged to take up internships and get involved with projects outside of our studies, which really prepares you for the industry. The experiences I have gained outside LCF have proved just as important as the course itself.
LCF: Have you won any prizes / been in the media / undertaken work experience?
EF: I initially studied Fashion Journalism and chose to defer after a year. During this time I interned for jewellery designer Lara Bohinc within the press and marketing department and discovered PR would allow me to engage with both the media and the designer. I worked there for 9 months and then chose to come back to LCF to study Fashion PR. I have now been at Valery Demure, a Sales and PR agency specialising in jewellery and accessories, for over a year alongside my course.
LCF: What inspires you?
EF: New designers, both in fashion and other disciplines. Those who create outside the constraints of commerciality and mainstream trends. That’s why I choose to focus my final major project on an emerging talent, developing promotional materials that embody her design vision, allowing her to remain focused on her collection.
LCF: What is most important to you about fashion?
EF: Its pace, there is always something or someone new to be discovered, but it also has such a rich history. Anything and everything can inspire fashion, and I love the subjectivity there’s no right and wrong. Also, careers in fashion are not as fixed as in other industries, although graduating from the PR course, I know there will always be scope to transition into other areas of the industry, the lines are blurred.
LCF: How would you sum up your final project?
EF: I worked with Fashion Design and Development student Danni Nilsson, taking her final collection and creating a lookbook, brand book, social media campaign and collaborative film to raise brand awareness and gain attention from fashion influencers. I was really motivated by the idea that the project was not just theoretical, that these would be elements that could potentially help her launch her collection.
LCF: What are your plans for the future? And how do you feel your course will help you?
EF: I am continuing to work for Valery Demure, focusing on social media and e-commerce. I really appreciate the accessibility of digital, and this sense of inclusive exclusivity it allows designers to create, being able to see the world that surrounds the brand. The course is very open to and aware of developments within the industry and equipped me with the knowledge to understand the on-going transition to digital.
LCF: What advice would you give someone wanting to study for a BA at LCF?
EF: Be prepared to self-motivate and try to take on plenty of internships in the first two years, it should save you from having to do them when you graduate. Choose internships at small companies, you are given more responsibility and really have the chance to make an impression. Also check out the reading lists each term, they can answer pretty much all of your questions.
- Read more about BA14
- The BA14 takeover on the LCF Channel
- Watch the season unfold: #LCFBA14
- BA (Hons) Strategic Communication for Fashion
- Visit the BA14 Media Exhibition
- Follow Emma on Instagram