It’s that time of year again when fashion and textile students across the four corners of the globe suddenly realise that their dissertation isn’t going to write itself. We can almost set our clocks by the onslaught of questionnaires and none stop e-mails asking our advice and opinions on this and that.
Whilst at the time it can be quite full on, time consuming and to be honest ‘a right pain in the backside’ we do answer all requests and hopefully furnish them with something useful and interesting they can use.
However it’s not all one-way traffic. Over the years we have noticed one big thing about the types of questions and topics the next generation of fashion professionals asks us and that is they always seem to follow patterns.
For example a few years ago it was all about organic cotton, how it was made, where it is produced, toxic pesticides, excessive water consumption etc and within months the press picked up on it as a worthy topic and ran with a million and one articles about it. It took organic cotton into the main stream, we all now know the benefits both to the planet and ourselves that organic cotton gives us.
Last year most of the questions were associated with the production of bamboo and whether it warranted it’s eco alternative credentials (a topic we have discussed previously)
This year (and I think the most exciting for us) the most popular course of questioning has been down the ‘Made In Britain’ route. Many of you want to know more about this than any other subject.
And as if by magic, YOU magazine interview us on that very theme! Look out in one of Mays issues for a fashion piece on Made In Great Britain. Hopefully we should feature.
Students are the barometers of change and ultimately what drives and interests them will eventually be what the movers and the shakers of the world will be looking at as ‘The Next Big Thing’. It is therefore paramount that we support and nurture them in anyway we can as they are one of the main creative sources of all things new.
Answer their question openly and honestly, where possible give them placements, take them on as apprentices, without bursting into song, they are the future, they are our untapped creative powerhouses.
I always wonder if I hadn’t been as lucky as I was and not been offered the two fantastic placements when I was a student from Northumbria University, how differently my career would have panned out. Both my placements led to fantastic jobs and opportunities. My first job on graduation with Jane and Patrick Gottelier at Artwork and later on in my career working as a designer with the wonderful Karen Latuske at M&Co.
Look out next month when I will be show casing one of our brilliant knitwear factories in Hinkley, Leicester.
