Uni Modules.
First year.
During my first year studying Fashion Business and Promotion at Birmingham City University, I completed modules in Fashion Business Context, Trends Forecasting, Buying and Merchandising and Visual Merchandising, each which led to development of a wide set of skills and research areas.
For the Fashion Business Context module, the brief specified that a creative report needed to be created surrounding a specific topic associated with the fashion industry. I decided to focus upon the idea of Slow Vs Fast Fashion, particularly in relation to the luxury sectors sustainable behaviour and their treatment of workers in less economically developed countries and the environment through pollution and the scarcity of resources.
The Trends Forecasting module required the development of a research sketchbook, focusing on the PESTLE formation of current factors influencing the fashion environment, and then working to establish such data and information into a manifesting trend. Following my Fashion Business Context module, I continued to focus upon the luxury market, homing in on the possibilities of leather alternatives and how this could revolutionise luxury fashion. I documented my Vegan leather trend within a manifesto investigating concepts such as Pinatex, Mushroom and Wine leather, and debated the future prospects of such materials and how a vegan fashion industry could save the planet.
During the Buying and Merchandising module I developed an admiration for high street fashion through working in collaboration with a relatable brand such as George at Asda. Within this module, I also initiated my passion for the adaptive fashion industry, something which I continued to investigate and analyse through my following two years at university. For the Buying and Merchandising module, we were expected to develop a capsule collection range for the George brand, through completing Competitive shops, analysing trends, researching into lead times and manufacturing origins and assessing the fashion environment. I decided to develop an adaptive girl's wear range for disabled children, as I recognised a damaging gap in the market for clothing suitable for individuals living with disabilities. To support the need for adaptive apparel, I researched extensively into the value of the Purple Pound (the disabled spending power) and the features required from clothing to suit a disabled body, information which I obtained through primary research. My hard work was credited by lecturer's, who selected me to present my project at George head office, where I was later offered a work placement opportunity. I am thrilled to see that in 2021, the adaptive clothing market is beginning to gain traction, as brands such as Marks and Spencer and Tommy Hilfiger have kick started a movement toward addressing disabled consumers, and I am humbled to recognise that George have begun to look toward disabled clothing for children, through their launch of Autism-friendly school uniform.
Visual Merchandising was a module which I was apprehensive to begin due to being our first group project. For this, we were required to produce a visual merchandising campaign for Selfridges Birmingham based once again off of manifesting trends which as a team we could recognise within the environment. We developed the HumanITy concept, a campaign which focused upon the idea that IT and the digital world is stripping society of individualism, as consumers are subconsciously morphing into emotionless robots. For this, we focused on three key drivers, this being Fifth-wave Feminism, Anti-anonymity and Media Manipulation. Our work was recognised by lecturer's who selected our team to present to the Visual Merchandising team at Selfridges Birmingham, who later further selected us to present to their head office team in London.
Second year.
Second year began with the PR and Marketing module, which required us to individually establish a marketing campaign for one of Birmingham based agency Gung Ho's clients. I decided to continue upon my first year Buying and Merchandising focus of investigating different body types and abilities through developing a breast cancer orientated campaign for Speedo. I focused upon celebrating breast cancer and body's post mastectomy, drawing light to the taboo subject of post-surgery depression and the idea that despite being cleared of cancer, the trauma of dealing with such illness and the prospect of their bodies changing leads to significant mental illness and body dismorphia. Instead, I looked to encourage women and men who have survived breast cancer back into swimwear and back into the pool through the #PINKTOMAKETHEMTHINK campaign which involved marketing techniques such as Guerrilla marketing where all generic objects within society were hypothetically painted pink with no explanation, social media turned pink and flash mobs involving very little clothing were scripted. I was once again rewarded by the university by being selected to present my campaign at Gung Ho head quarters.
Following a module which involved significant creativity came the International Business module which focused primarily on business skills through creating a business report addressing the internationalisation of a selected brand into a country which it didn't currently operate. For this, I chose to focus upon the luxury beauty industry through centring my project around Pat McGrath Labs and internationalising the heritage and cultural beauty brand into a Nigeria in response to the melanin movement and to discourage the cultural obsession with skin bleaching within Nigeria. For this, I identified numerous push and pull factors, completed various business theories, such as Porter's 5 forces and SWOT analysis and also created a infographic poster documenting this internationalisation.
The Events Management module was our second group project, which allowed us to select our own team members, based upon our individual strengths, weaknesses and skills and to the work together collaboratively to plan a charity event to raise money for homelessness charity St Basils in Birmingham. For this, our team of five developed our events management group Violetology, and set about organising a gin tasting and gin garden creating event, as we recognised this to be a growing trend surrounding Mother's day 2020. We established a venue and planned the event effectively, through addressing financial, health and safety and risk assessment features, as well as purchasing resources required, however due to growing concern surrounding the coronavirus pandemic, we were forced to cancel our event last minute and instead establish a new direction for the module, focusing upon the crises management of cancelling an event, whilst also trying to secure a donation towards supporting the charity during a time of such national and international uncertainty.
Due to our Industry Placement module being cancelled in response to Covid-19, all students within the BCU school of fashion were automatically enrolled onto to the Collaboration module, where students from all courses were grouped together to develop a collective project in relation to the topic of the Hidden City. For this role, I undertook a more leadership focused role which I never previously had experienced and helped co-ordinate our group project of Utopia Uncovered where we each utilised our creative skills to develop a piece of work which represented our idea of utopia to appear within a digital exhibition. I then created an individual appraisal presenting my contribution to the group and how this led to our success.
Third year.
My final year studying Fashion Business and Promotion began with the Major Project, a dissertation-based module which required extensive primary and secondary research. Again relating back to my first year Buying and Merchandising module, I decided to focus my study on the disabled consumer and the adaptive (or lack of) fashion sector. For this I analysed the psychological impact that clothing has on mental wellbeing, but also social interaction and identified that the fashion industry has substantial impact on the isolation of disabled consumers from society, due to the market's inability to produce suitable clothing that allows for the self expression and independence of individual's with different abilities. I concluded that an increase in mental illness within the disabled population is resultant of their social exclusion which is encouraged by fashion, and consumers are then further restricted from bettering their mental health through sport and exercise due to a further lack of adaptive sportswear and thus resulting in sporting exclusion.
The success of my Major Project led me to continue upon this topic area within my Independent Final Project, basing the research threads / starting points upon the future recommendations of my Major Project. Through doing this, this directed me toward the concept of ableism / disablism within society, and how unjust inaccessibility restricts the social inclusion of disabled consumers. This led to the development of Google Able which I formalised within a business plan, highlighting the concept of a digital accessibility toolkit focused upon Navigation, Accessibility Rating, Online Community, Adaptive Fashion and Virtual Fashion features, aiming to "redefine ability, accessibility, inclusivity and identity."
Within the business plan for Google Able, I identified market competitors associated with the different features of the digital accessibility toolkit, this including artificial intelligence, the backbone behind this hypothetical prospect, I also extensively co-ordinated data surrounding the disabled population (the consumer), and then further specified this into two consumer tribes, the Socially Immobile and the Anonymously Abled. The operating process, in relation to employees, development process, legalities, start-up costs and insurance were also evident, as well as a manifested marketing timeline to draw attention to both Google Able and its purpose. I then went on to develop mock ups presenting the creative outcomes of Google Able, this including a logo, brand guidelines, marketing, a website and the application itself. This module has proved to be highly successful, as I have been nominated by the university for Graduate Fashion Week 2021, where I have been shortlisted to the final ten candidates for the Fashion Innovation Award.
Online Access.
Please feel free to scan the QR codes below to access my three most successful modules, these being my Buying and Merchandising, Major Project and Independent Final Project (Business Plan, Research and Collaboration Document and Creative Outcomes) submissions.
Buying and Merchandising
Buying and Merchandising
Research and Collaboration
Business Plan
Creative Outcomes