Pash for Fash

A lot as happened since my last blog post- It almost feels as though I’ve suddenly become a ‘real-life’ adult in the space of a few weeks. It started with a relaxing week away from job-hunting and post-uni blues, and has ended with an official BA hons in Fashion and a new job!

Awooooo

Hoooo!

Yesterday afternoon we all threw on our rather unflattering graduating gowns and pretty much spent the entire day sweating under the sweltering English sun (there’s a sentence I never thought I’d say)… I spent much of the day looking bald, or as my friend so lovingly phrased it “like an upside-down eggcup” (thanks Amy)… Instead of forcing you all to look at a million photos of my boiled egg impersonation, I’ll just share this rare photo of us with the one person who managed to keep us all sane during our final year- our amazing tutor Jane Mills- I’m pretty sure I would have just spent the entire year crying under my desk if it wasn’t for her calming words of wisdom keeping me on track!

But anyway, enough about graduation!

A week or so ago, I got a tumblr message from a girl who’d seen some of my work and who wanted advice on going on to study fashion—I always find it really lovely when people ask for my advice, firstly because I’m still learning myself and it’s usually me crying for help, and secondly because I just feel like I needed to nurture her and guide her through life like an over-protective mother.

The first thing she asked is how/why did I decide to study fashion?

Generally this is quite a hard question to answer because, unlike the majority of my classmates who apparently have “always loved clothes and used to make dresses for their barbies”, I really didn’t care for clothes growing up. Obviously clothes played a huge part in my life, but being a pretty rough and tumble child I was constantly covered in mud and my only experience with barbies were the times I spent drowning them in the bath.

The only early memory I have of anything slightly fashion related was my love of buttons. I spent many a happy day playing with a jar of mixed buttons at my Grandmas- as you can tell I was a really out-going child- apparently I liked the way they felt on my hands, I don’t know. Whether this early experience was in some way related to my future career path, I’m not sure. I doubt it  (I was also obsessed with the wombles, but my chances of becoming a small furry animal are pretty slim, so….)

In fact, I have no idea what lead me to fashion. I remember being nine or ten and carrying about notepads full of little sketches- frilly skirts and chunky heels (apparently my choice of clothes changed a lot from the muddy dungarees I’d adored a few years before), however, after my dramatic “I’m Hannah and I want to be a fashion designer” announcement over breakfast one morning was met with a scoff and a “you can’t do that, it’s too competitive”, I just tried for forget it had ever crossed my mind.

Browsing through fashion blogs run by late teens/early twenties and trying to distinguish ages when other people start to recognise their passion, has proven pretty difficult. As much as I really love some of the content, most I cannot distinguish from one to the other. The last few weeks have left me with a blur of outfit posts and a lot a Topshop… When I could first afford to start buying fashion magazines such as Elle and Vogue (which was rare), the thought of ever wearing the type of clothes pictured in them just didn’t cross my mind. It was a completely different world to me, a world full of successful, powerful women with equally powerful wardrobes. My closet filled with charity shops purchases and hand-me-downs didn’t quite compare, but that was okay. To me those clothes didn’t seem real- they were beautiful, yes, but they belonged in a world that I never even dreamed I could ever be a part of.

The idea of 16 year old bloggers with racks of shoes and Prada skirts just completely blows my mind. Part of me wonders if I even knew who Mario and Miuccia Prada were when I was 16…. I still lived in a world in which I was obsessed with Tokyo street style and cut up all my clothes- clearly not much has changed there...

I originally went off to study Fine art. Canterbury was really beautiful and the course was pretty chilled out- I had time to just draw, paint and do whatever the hell I wanted, which was pretty much perfect! Thankfully though, I had some really awful flatmates who made me realise I actually hated living there and really didn’t want to do art, and so on a whim I applied to study fashion at Northampton. I was accepted and switched uni’s at the end of the school year- quite possibly the best rash decision I’ve ever made!

Three years on and I’m still not entirely sure what I want to do, but at least now I know what field I want to do it in! And I guess the next ten years will probably be my most exciting and hard-working, which surprisingly, I'm really looking forward to!

Thinking back to the way I went about choosing a career path back in school, really makes me wish I’d had someone there to give me more advice and guide me through making that decision. It’s such a massive choice to make at such a young age- and who actually knows what they want to do at 17?! I don’t know whether it’s any better four years on, but I felt like I was completely alone in deciding what Universities to apply for and what course I wanted to do.

I think in the end I just browsed a list of uni’s and at random picked a few that I knew had an art course. Probably not the best way to go about it... 

I’d really like to start blogging more about career options within the fashion industry- it’ll probably be an eye-opener for me as well as prospective students- as well as advice on what to do once you’ve actually graduated.

Personally I’ve already gotten pretty sick of the majority of my parent’s generation banging on about the recession and how none of us will ever get jobs- it’s NOT motivating, and even if it is true, please stop raining on our parade! It really doesn’t make people want to start looking for work, trust me.

Internship advice is also really important, as work experience and connections are probably the most crucial elements to finding fashion related work after graduation. Again, the word ‘internship’ has started to make me feel slightly ill, butttt they’re essential and I’ve actually learnt A LOT from interning, so they’re definitely worth it!

And if there’s anything at all fashion or uni related that anyone wants to ask feel free to tweet me at @hannahpodbury  ---believe it or not I ACTUALLY WANT TO HELP! 

H