FRA Experience - Year 1
A lot of people ask me what I do, it is always hard to explain as my course is really varied. Some believe its just day trips to London, some think its all about design and some people think it is just playing with clothes.
Well I am here to put all stereotypes aside and tell you what really happens at the Fashion Retail Academy.
I have finished my first year at the Fashion Retail Academy studying L3 Fashion Retail. My course covers buying, visual merchandising, supply chain, business, marketing and communications.
I really enjoy FRA because I learn from people who have experience within the industry and I get to put my work into practice with industry projects, working with retailers, doing mini projects, attending exhibitions, fashion shows and learning from experience. I also love the fact that it is located in the heart of London, with oxford street being just around the corner! Everyday is an adventure as we go to fashion shows, exhibitions, events and museums all around London.
Here is a summary of my first year:
During the first couple of weeks we were encouraged to research different job roles within the fashion industry to give us an idea of what career we wanted to do when we left. This was useful as it helped us set some aims and goals for the year. We also had introductions about the supply chain, store operations, visual merchandising and fashion communication.
The first project of the year was to create a digital magazine using a software called "Joomag" this was difficult as I had never used it before. However, it made me gain new skills and helped me to become more creative. We also had to create a sketchbook for contextual studies where we became creative by showcasing the influences and designs of clothes throughout all the different eras from 1900-2010.
Our assignment was to create a digital magazine focusing on layouts, font, style, videos and images. In our magazine we had to include articles on the supply chain, video of an AD campaign presentation, get the look style page, an article on communication strategies for brands, a vlog about fashion influences from the different eras, classification of retailers, a video on quality control, an advert for a brand and a garment technology pack. This magazine covered the subjects of Principles of Fashion Retail, Communication for Fashion Retail, Fashion Production and Supply Chain.
The trips during Term 1 were to go around London and take images for research to help us with this project. We went to Burberry exhibition (makers house), Selfridges, Carnaby Street, Liberty, Dover Street Market, Fashion and Textile Museum, V&A Museum, House of Holland Fashion Show, Harrods, Covent Garden and The Clothes Show Live.
Here are some images of Project 1: (click through the slideshow)
Our second project was to work in groups and create a plan for a pop up shop. We were all given a retailer, my group had UNIQLO. We decided that our pop up shop would focus on the new collection of HEATTECH clothing and we used WILL.I.AM as our celebrity to help promote our pop up.
The subject taught were Principles of Fashion Business and Retail, Fashion Buying and Merchandising, Fashion Management and Marketing and Visual Merchandising.
We created a visual report comparing types of customer, customer service, trends and visual display techniques. This research was conducted on our trips to Burberry exhibition, Box Park, Spitalfields and Brick Lane. We made a mystery shopper video, customer service training session, customer profiles, created a customer service handbook and a visual merchandising handbook, looked at online and offline marketing campaigns, KPI evaluation, PESTLE and SWOT analysis. Our main task for buying was to create a 20 piece range plan for UNIQLO and we had to create a window display for our visual merchandising subject.
Here are some images of Project 2: (click through the slideshow)
Here is a mood board of my individual pop up shop:
For our final project the aim was to create a collaboration between a brand and a celebrity. We could choose what subjects to focus on, I chose buying and marketing. I decided to create a digital magazine which would include articles, videos and images of social media, events, catwalk shows, range plan, trend mood boards and more.
Click the image to view the Final Project
Overall the experience at the Fashion Retail Academy has been amazing, i am learning something new everyday and I cannot wait for what is in store for me next year.
Read More:
Cara Delevingne X River Island Collaboration Project https://bit.ly/2J1my1S
