I havealways had an ambition to pursue a career in the fashion industry, nothing inthe world makes me as excited, motivated and confident as fashion. It’s whatdrives me to succeed in life.
I wake up thinking about it and fall asleepdreaming about it. Ever since I was little I remember spending hours changingthe clothes on my dolls, cutting pieces of old material into new outfits,ensuring their hair makeup and accessories all matched, watching countlessrunway shows, and designing outfits in my sketch books. Growing up I enjoyed helpingall my friends choose the perfect outfit, styling them for nights out andlending them my clothes. I progressed to styling all the outfits for my schoolfashion show, posting outfit photos online and setting up a fashion blog. Frommissing nights out with friends to save for the perfect pair of shoes, spendinghours online browsing through blogs to forecast the trends, and choosing to buythe ridiculous fur coat over buying food for the week. It’s truly something Ilove, it’s my true passion. Fashion forme is how I express myself, I can tell the world who I am by the outfit I wear.
I can portray whoever I want to be, fashion serves my non-verbal communication.I love dressing up mixing colours, patterns and fabrics to create the perfectlook. My outfit affects how I face the world, it’s my social armour. I feelcapable of facing any challenge, obstacle or person with the right outfit.
I am from a small town in the south ofIreland called Tralee, as you can imagine deciding to pursue a career infashion and study abroad is not the normal career path. I know many of myfriends and family can’t understand why I would consider moving to a new countryall alone when I could attend college in Ireland and follow the same path as mypeers. Although much to their astonishment I’ve never drifted from the factthat I wanted to work in fashion. The decision to move to Manchester is a hugestep for me, it is the biggest life changing decision I have made in my short19 years of life. It doesn’t scare me, as I realise and appreciate that I cango and pursue my dream, study my passion all while learning about a new culture.It will give me the opportunity to meet new people from all over the world. Itwill provide me with real life experience where I will develop personally andintellectually.
I will gain more confidence and independence, I will learn tofind myself while immersed in a new environment, it will be an experienceunlike any other. I will have more career opportunities, liberty and successafter studying abroad. Manchester is the perfect place for me to broaden myknowledge and apply my skills to grow within the fashion industry.Creativity, style and art are theessences of fashion but to sustain a successful fashion brand business is thekey element. This course is very special to me as it offers fashion andbusiness. Growing up my favourite movie was ‘The Devil Wears Prada’ itdisplayed everything I had always dreamed about vogue, runway and fashion.Meryl Streep’s character made a powerful statement that made me understand thesignificance of fashion, to be more than glamour, the self-indulgent and thesuperficial.
She explains how something so insignificant to some people such asthe colour of their sweater represents billions of dollars and thousands ofjobs. From then I really understood the fashion industry to be both a businessand a creative outlet. Ultimately fashion is the art form that everyone takespart in, not everybody paints or likes poetry or dance, but fashion iseverywhere, and everyone is a part of it. Fashion has captured social andeconomic change. It has captured moments in time that have provided fascinatinginsights into the people of past decades. In conclusion that’s why fashionnever fails to amaze me.I am currently studying an art, craft and designlevel 5 course.
Which has provided me with an insight into the modules of thecourse I have chosen. I have work shadowed a local fashion designer ‘andobserved her day to day routine to understand how she does her job. It providedme with me an invaluable insight into the how hard working, highly creative andbusiness orientated the profession is. Ihave closely followed the careers of successful fashion retailers andentrepreneurs. Including Umar Kamani who attended MMU,co-founder and CEO of ‘PLT.com’.
I have always had a desire to follow in thefootsteps of Irish native Shelly Corkery fashion director of Brown Thomas andentrepreneur Conna Walker founder at House of CB. Their success is what Iaspire to achieve. Online retail businesses, social media andmodern marketing are the future and an undeniable part of successful fashionbusinesses, after completing the course this is the line I would be interestedin
