BA (Hons) Fashion Design
Make your cutting-edge designs ready for the catwalk. This degree will nurture your creativity through practical experience from tailoring to streetwear in our specialist fashion studios.
Lucy Davis
Lucy is a BA (Hons) Fashion alumna, and Graduate Menswear Designer for outerwear and shorts at Next.
Job title:Graduate Menswear Designer
Employer:Next
Studied:BA (Hons) Fashion Design
Tell us about your role, and what a typical day looks like for you
My role is to assist the outerwear and shorts designer, helping develop, sample and design new pieces for collections. I also work closely with the buyers and merchandisers on the team to get the final products completed. A typical day for me will be conducting research, this is either online or actually going out to places such as London. Creating spec packs to send off to factory's to be sampled. Choosing trims and colours for products and attending fit meetings with the garment techs.
What do you enjoy most, and what are the biggest challenges?
I mostly enjoy the designing side of the job, but I would say it's also the biggest challenge as everything has to be perfect. You could be working on a spec pack for a few days, it's really time consuming as there's so much information you have to put on it.
For third year I got selected for Graduate Fashion Week which was a big achievement for myself. It's such a good opportunity to meet people from industry and get your work out there.
How did your studies at Solent help prepare you for your career?
I feel like the lecturers at Solent really pushed my creative side. Before coming to Solent I had never designed properly so my drawing skills weren't that great and I wasn't confident with it. But come third year I was really confident with drawing and my skills improved massively. Now the designing is what I enjoy most, and what I applied for when looking for jobs. Being taught how to use illustrator and InDesign at Solent also has really helped as they are programmes used in industry.
What advice would you give to students wanting to follow in your footsteps?
Any advice I would give would be to get as much experience as you can throughout your time at Solent. Having experience on your CV really makes you stand out from others, and gives you a head start when applying for jobs.
Start making your own waves
Course studied
BA (Hons) Fashion Styling and Creative Direction
Perfect your skills in styling and art direction, make-up and hair direction, photography, retouching, trend forecasting, and branding to begin your career as a fashion stylist or creative director.
BA (Hons) Fashion and Beauty Media
Use your passion for fashion and beauty to become a multi-skilled storyteller – guided by our industry experts and using professional facilities to deliver content and campaigns for UK brands.
BA (Hons) Fashion Management with Marketing
Do you want to be at the forefront of fashion, launching the latest brands and leading styles? Gain strategic marketing skills and business insight ready for a commercial career in fashion.
