LIFE AS A FASHION STUDENT | IT GOT TO ME...

February 03, 2018

LIFE AS A FASHION STUDENT | IT GOT TO ME...

So there's me... "I'm going to post every week" "I'm gonna update my blog so much" "Uni is going to be perfect"... Little did I know, I wouldn't even think about my blog or dare to go anywhere near it for the best part of 3 or 4 months.

So... What happened?

To be completely honest... I'm not sure what happened. I went from being so happy at finally doing what I wanted to do, I was living independently, I was fending for myself... I thought I was having the best time, growing up. However, this took quite a quick turn.
I realised that my choices in not taking a foundation course probably wasn't the best decision I've ever made. I realised that having to work to pay for food and rent (and all that flipping fabric!) wasn't as rewarding thing I thought it would have been and, being away from family was 10 times worse than I thought.
Now, I am not in any way saying this is what Uni is like for everyone, I have so many friends who are absolutely loving it and wouldn't ever think of saying half the things other people are thinking about uni, but, it just so happened to happen to me.

After the first couple of weeks, I realised I had effectively jumped in at the deep end. The head of Sixth Form where I went used to say that you had to hit the ground running from now on... and I felt like I'd just hit the ground in an olympic sprint...

The First Term

So the way my course works is that you effectively have 4 different subjects in one degree: Illustration, Design, Cutting and Construction and History and Theory. Each of these run alongside each other and all have the same hand in date... but have NOTHING to do with each other, except the odd drawing of a design here and there. For me, this was like being in the first year of A Levels and I found hard enough to cope at that level.

Illustration, I thought, was going to be a breeze. I did A Level Art and did pretty decent, I love to draw in my spare time and I find it just a fun thing to do. This was until I found out our lecturer is a big name illustrator and has unreachably high hopes for us (which is great but I find things like that very daunting). Although he helped us so much and taught us so much, the subject for me was just way too much to handle. I would sit down to do a drawing and find myself correcting myself five times over, and when you need to produce a full sketchbook of development and drawings, I was way off target by the deadline. I ended up with a middle of the road grade, all because I just wasn't focussed and I was more bothered about someone judging my work than actually being proud of what I could do and making more of it.

Tip One

WHEN YOU'RE DOING YOUR WORK, NEVER LOOK ON INSTAGRAM AND FIND THE BEST WORK IN YOUR CLASS AND JUDGE YOURSELF COMPARED TO IT! INSTAGRAM IS THE ENEMY!

Now design was a whole other story. I was used to Designing simple dresses or cushions... something that anyone would look at and go "oh yeah, thats a dress". This was something else, there was no 'dresses' or 'tops', you had to design something that no one else could think of, something unique and quirky, something unrecognisable to anyone that doesn't do fashion... I had no clue what to do with one, never mind 50! I have to say, this did get easier. Once I got started and asked my fellow students for help and advice, it started to flow. Again, I got a middle of the road kind of a mark, but it was far better than I thought I was going to get at the start of the year.

Tip Two

NEVER BE AFRAID TO ASK FOR HELP, YOU MIGHT FEEL STUPID FOR ABOUT FIVE SECONDS UNTIL YOU REALISE... NO ONE HAS A CLUE EITHER! HELP EACH OTHER OUT

Everything for me got a little better when we got into familiar territory: Writing essays and sewing. I found that when I had these lectures and workshops, that I went home and was so much more motivated to actually get my work done. So, from the start of this term, if I'm ever feeling like I can't do any of my Illustration or Design work, I do a bit of research or write up notes from either Theory or Construction. I means that my confidence in what I'm doing is restored and I have a bit more confidence in doing work for my weaker subjects. It's working... so far.

Tip Three

STARTING TO ACCEPT THAT NETFLIX IS YOUR LIFE AND THAT UNI WORK IS JUST NEVER GOING TO HAPPEN? DO SOMETHING YOU KNOW AND LIKE WITHIN YOUR COURSE... MIGHT GIVE YOU SOME CONFIDENCE AND INSPIRATION

So... That's all I've got for now. Hopefully I will be back on track again soon. I thought I would start my blog back up like nothing happened, but I feel it's important to recognise and address issues like this as I know from speaking to others that so many people are having the exact same feelings and that it's not just me. Please comment, like and share (especially to those people you know are feeling this way about uni)