FRA Experience - Year 2
My time at the Fashion Retail has come to an end. I have completed my two year Fashion Retail and Business course, focusing on buying, visual merchandising, businesses studies, marketing and communications.
The second year has been my favourite as we put all the lessons from year 1 into practice through industry projects and internships.
During the first term we completed three projects focusing on:
-Progression in fashion business and retail
- Fashion retail environment
- Fashion futures and sustainability
- Final Project
For progression in fashion business and retail we were encouraged to set goals for the year and begin our CV, cover letters and Linkedin profiles. To prepare us for starting our careers after our course had finished. We had weekly meetings with our tutors to set goals and create a personal development plan for our next steps. We had to come up with a one year career plan and a five year career plan writing our dream goals and the steps we have to take to get there. We also had an assessment day and practice interviews to prepare us for the job roles we would be applying for. We also had lots of masterclasses with professionals to give their advice to us about different job roles such as buying, marketing, PR, management and merchandising roles.
During this part of the course we had to complete a 3 week work placement in London. I was placed at Marks and Spencers Head Office in London, where I learnt about buying, marketing and PR. I attended a photoshoot and helped out at the SS18 Press shows.
I also decided to complete more work experience to learn about working with magazines and fashion shows. Therefore, I also interned at Vogue House - Conde Nast Publications and London Fashion Week.
Here are some images of my work experience with Vogue House - Conde Nast Publications, London Fashion Week, M&S - PR, Marketing and Buying. For more detail information about the internships visit the links at the end of this article.
For our fashion retail environment part of our course, we had to complete two industry projects. One with Topshop/Topman creating an event and campaign to promote Topshop/Topman in Austin, Texas and another with Converse o create a fashion retail store of the future for the retailer Converse. We had to remain realistic and focus within the next five years. We then had to present our ideas to the marketing and brand executives of Topshop/Topman and Converse.
Another part of the subject was to gather store research about ambience, branding, customer service, digital technology, window displays, in-store display, signage and graphics, point of sale and the branding. We had to make a presentation on a multi-channel experience for a selected brand around a key promotional activity, which included a store window mock-up, in-store graphics and signage, POS materials, website home page and social media mockups. I focused mine on Topshop lingerie linking to valentines day.
Here are some images of our projects with Topshop/Topman and Converse. To view the full project visit the links at the end of this article.
Our main task for our fashion futures and sustainability subject was to run a pop up shop for TRAID - charitable second hand clothing store that promotes sustainable fashion. To prepare us for running the store we had to visit the TRAID factory and organise the clothing into premium, high street, basics, accessories and reject. For our marketing we had to create a photoshoot, social media posts and an advert to promote the event.
Everyone was put into groups of:
Marketing- design posters and create a playlist
PR – invite companies, hand out flyers; social media- snapchat and Instagram stories
Logistics- organise staff breaks, tills and donations
Buying – choose stock for the store; visual merchandising – floor plan and mannequins
The key factors for our success was teamwork, completing the tasks on time and being supportive of one another. We managed to raise £563.74 and over £1200 for the whole week.
After our first part of projects we went on a fashion trip to Milan to get inspiration for our final project which would gives us our overall grade for the whole two years. We went to Milan during fashion week and explore the Duomo Cathedral, Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, Armani Silos, visit the fashion school Istituto Marangoni, shop around 10 Corso Como and tour the main upscale fashion district, Quadrilatero Della Moda.
For more pictures, videos and information about our trip to Milan visit the link at the end of this article.
For our final project we had to create a business plan, this had to include one of our course topics such as marketing, visual merchandising or buying. I chose to focus on my marketing and communications topic. This project was the most important one as this gave us our final grade for the whole two years at the Fashion Retail Academy. I was inspired by the movie clueless for my final project and created a magazine showcasing my marketing ideas for a virtual reality fitting room app.
Overall I received a DISTINCTION for all of my hard work over the past two years and now I am ready to start my career.
My time at the Fashion Retail Academy, has been unforgettable. This year helped me put all of my knowledge into practice through industry projects and work experience. I am very excited for the future and grateful for the opportunities and experience the fashion retail academy have given me.
To view my final project click the image below.
