We know this is an unusual time for everyone and thought you might be struggling to find things to do whilst you’re stuck at home. So, our Course Directors from Fashion and Textiles have come up with some ideas that will not only keep you busy, but get you uni ready too!
BA (Hons) Fashion Business and Promotion (FBP)
Document your lockdown
Keep a diary, a lockdown record - use your social media knowledge and log what you did during the lockdown and how you made the most of it. This is great to show potential employers!
Learn online
- Expand your knowledge in some online courses – there are so many and they are absolutely free! Google and Facebook Blue Print offer some great short courses!
- Visit the BCU portfolio and explore what are our final year graduates are up to at the end of their three years.
Get social
Set up a LinkedIn account; this is a great tool you can use across your three years and for your career in industry! Connect with your lecturers, alumni and anyone in the fashion industry. It’s a professional networking site, they will accept your connection!
Get outside (virtually)
Go to a museum or gallery. This resource has a really comprehensive list of places offering virtual experiences: Virtual museum guide.
Read more
Read some free business reports from McKinsey:
- McKinsey - Future of retail operations winning in a digital era
- Mckinsey - Our insights
- Mckinsey - Coronavirus update
Another excellent read: Deloitte Global Powers of Retailing. A great perspective on the global retail state looking at economic trends, technology advances and cultural patterns.
Watch
Great fashion lockdown watches include The True Cost - taking a look at the impact of the fast fashion industry -also a must see is Next In Fashion, presented by Tan France and Alexa Chung.
The Great Hack on Netflix is brilliant to consider the dark side of social media and data, as well as Black Mirror! It opens up new thoughts about the future on many industries and technology.
Try a Ted Talk from Suzanne Lee - the future of growing clothing and other things from microbes! The future of Biofabrication.
Listen
- The Business of Fashion Podcast has gained a global following as an essential daily resource for fashion creatives, executives and entrepreneurs in over 200 countries.
- Want to know more about the history of fashion? Dressed explores the incredibly rich and complex history behind the clothes we wear.
- Passion for menswear? Blamo Podcast explore men's style and the world of fashion with the people who shape it.
- Fashion Is Your Business (FIYB) features useful in-depth interviews with industry leaders and innovators
Follow
@bcu_fbp @soft_bcu @drapersonline @bof @officialgfw @forbes
BA (Hons) Fashion Branding and Communication (FBC)
Get creative
It's a great time to start collecting some research and ideas which you will be able discuss with your academics when you join us. It’s important to collect this research in either a digital format of your choice, or physically within a sketchbook. Collect images (you are welcome to create your own images too, if you would like) and make some brief notes which tell us why you have made the selections that you have. Nothing is ‘wrong’ as everything will be your own viewpoint, this exercise is to enable us to find out more about you and your areas of interest within the wider world of fashion.
Who’s your influencer?
Who has been the biggest influence on your decision to become a fashion communicator? Who do you admire who has a connection to fashion? They could be a fashion designer, a blogger, a celebrity, a fashion image-maker, a fashion writer, a fashion stylist, someone from fashion history, an activist, musician, performer, curator or they could be a personal connection within your own social circle. Show and tell us why you find them so inspirational!
Also look at where do you gain your fashion inspiration from, is it the media? Do you look at blogs, podcasts, zines, fashion film or do you prefer printed fashion publications? Do you have a favourite fashion magazine, fashion writer or other source of opinions on fashion? Tell us all about the favourite way that you use to stay switched on to what is happening in the world of fashion and lifestyle!
Predict the future
Have a go at identifying a current fashion trend that inspires you, and try to predict one which you think consumers are going to be moving towards. Visually capture this trend and where and how it is already happening or beginning to appear. What is causing people to be attracted to this trend? Is there something happening politically, socially, within music, art, youth culture or otherwise which is feeding this trend? Collect as much information as you can, we can help you with the analysis if you are not sure.
Foundation Fashion and Textiles
The most important thing that the new students need to be is curious, to keep an open mind and to research broadly around their chosen subject matters.
Get busy
Collate and record a visual record of your everyday life; photograph and document the people that live in your community and record the landscape; city / countryside that you live amongst. Take inspiration from photographer Martin Parr, whose aim was to capture the essence of life - in an instant, recording different storylines across the world: These photographs can then help to inform your first project, giving you a head start.
Look at some of the following websites and links to museums, and tune into fashion and art related documentaries (on Netflix or the BBC arts section).
- Dazed and Confused Magazine
- Vogue Fashion Shows
- Vogue Runway
- Fashion i-D
- Business of Fashion
- The Granary
- The Art of Fashion
- Secret London Tours
- Eye Revolution
Stay connected
@fbc_bcu
