Described by Vogue.com as an ‘undeniable springboard,’ the Fashion Awareness Direct (FAD) competition with Missoni was first introduced to me as part of a research module during the first term of my final year.
Bekki Brennan
BA (Hons) Fashion Design student
To make it to the finalist shortlist was such an amazing feeling!
The brief? To develop a concept based on European artists, involving a particular art movement.
Our whole Fashion Design course took part in this development part of the research. I began to research the constructivism art movement, looking into the traditional roots with artist Walter Drexel and then the modern day take with artist Albert Ruiz Villar.
From the whole BA (Hons) Fashion Design course, three of our pieces of work were put forward from BCU for the competition.
Any undergraduate from universities across the UK can apply to enter and a total of 120 applicants were submitted in total.
To then be selected as one of 20 finalists was such an amazing feeling and definitely set me up for a challenge on top of my final major project.
Showing at London Fashion Week at the Fashion Scout runway in Freemasons Hall was such a fantastic experience and it was so rewarding to see my designs on the catwalk. It can be quite daunting as a fashion student knowing that the industry is so competitive and hard to break into, but things like this give more hope that I really can do it.
Although I didn’t win the competition it was such an achievement to get so far and make contacts within FAD, with other fashion students and with people from industry.
Opportunities like this don’t come around often, so it’s given me a really great platform to show my work and personally given me an incredible confidence boost.
I feel my confidence has grown as well as my ability to multi-task and time-manage (it was such a good opportunity but required a lot of time and commitment from me).
It’s definitely a valuable addition to my CV and has given me a variation in design skills for my portfolio!
