5 Year Plan

• 2011: Finish FdA Fashion. Go back to Vietnam and get a 6 month internship at Kelly Bui done.
• 2012 - 2014: Finish Top-up year. Go back to Vietnam and start working as an assistant designer hopefully at Kelly Bui or another company.
• 2015: Having 3 years working experience, apply for a job as a designer in America or Singapore.

Ideal first job

I have found a graduate job on Drapers at Republic. As a customer, I like Republic and I think the job would suit me.

The Role
Assisting the designer in executing specific design briefs in a creative and commercial manner whilst adhering to and developing the brand identity in line with the Company/Gender/Departmental Strategy. The role will encompass the following:

• Deliver a continuous flow of cads to meet specific briefs.
• Develop an understanding of sales performance (best and worst sellers) of existing styles within the business.
• Assist the designer to create designs with a clear understanding of the pricing architecture of the relevant brand
• Research of the market, including high street and niche retailers, websites, trade fairs and catwalks to develop the departments strategy
• Identify new opportunities at style and colour level relevant to the departmental strategy
• Develop an understanding of garment construction, printing and finishing techniques to ensure relevant design packs
• Provide detailed spec sheets directly to our suppliers with all relevant information to ensure quick and correct sampling and production
• Maintain the design archive for reference by the buying department

• Develop an understanding of supplier’s abilities of specific factories.

I plan to work in designing in the future so the job is exactly what I want to do. I think the skills what I have gained at university as well as the experienced I have gained from my internships are relevant. The job requires candidate to be able to assist the main designer as well as work on market research, and that is what I can do.

Skills and Experience
• Fashion Degree to include placement year in design
• System skills to include Illustrator and Photoshop
• Illustration and graphic abilities
• Garment make up and construction knowledge
• Manufacturing processes and fabric types
• Quality management (to ensure garments are executed correctly)

I am confident that I would have all these above skills and qualifications after my graduation.

Toiling

I am quite happy with the fit now. There are one thing or two to adjust, however, generally the collection seem to looking right.

Fabric shopping

London is the best place to shop for fabric. Fabric shopping is always very inspiring to me. When I see and feel a material I like, I come up with illusions of designs in that material. To me, it is an extremely good way to work to go to fabric shops and get inspired.

Design

Seductive and sexy.

Exhibition: Pascal Rousson - Very Ape

"Very Ape" was a solo exhibition by artist Pascal Rousson. His idea was to explore the cavemen's way of life. I was very impressed. This exhibition might not be a total fashion exhibition, though, was very inspiring. I felt that the artist was wanting to bring things back to the origin when he while working on his objectives.

Exhibition: Fred Loves Fashion

Eight designers were invited to make an installation in the gallery:

1. A Child of the Jago
2. Bernstock Speirs
3. Boudicca
4. Andrea Cammarosano
5. Sian Hoffman
6. Kenny Campbell with Nelson Santos
7. Factoria Rent Me
8. Omar Kashoura

It was an exhibition with quite strong, shocking displays. First thing I noticed was a dummy sitting on a chair with a fetish outfit on, dark makeup and short hair. It was disturbing but it was interesting to see.

Second display was a stand looking down sadly but very gracefully. It was my favourite out of the bunch. All the broken bits made the whole thing look mysterious and so tough at the same time. It is hard to put into words but somehow I really felt it. I also enjoyed taking pictures and experience the display from different angles.

There was a picture on the wall of a nude body with dark background and a sort of electrical feeling effect. The photo gave me a feeling of a dark, sexual life. I did not feel like it was a few bodies of different people. I felt it was one person but she was lost. She had no heads and the light went straight where her head was suppose to be.