elizabethchapman-blog1

[elizabethchapman-blog1]

06/11/12 

My first day as an embroidery and embellishment intern at julien macdonald! I was shown around the studio and met everyone there. I was quickly put onto a dress that was getting fixed for an upcoming show in a few weeks time so, the studio was very busy! 

Frankie, my supervisor showed me how to sew on the long tubed beads. I was shown to knot the thread sew into the tulle and go through the loop of thread. This was so the thread wouldn’t pull against the tulle. Then I needed sew two together and then go along the tulle under the last bead and through that bead again, this was something great to learn as on my last placement I couldn’t get the beads perfectly straight. Once i got half way through I realised that I needed to point the beads in the middle of the area I was filling and mine were curving. I asked frankie if i should start again but she said it was fine and to just take note before I begin sewing. 

Today I was onto a new dress and learnt another skill! the dress was badly damaged and had huge holes in the tulle. I was showed how to fix this problem and it worked great. I would turn the garment inside out and place the hole onto a ham and pin it together. I would the get some spare tull and place it behind the hole and stitch it in place with clear thread, following previous stitches. I would then sew up the whole as best I could. 

after it had been fixed: 

08/11/12 

Today I learnt to hotfix! another intern from my department showed me how to hotfix. Another great skill I had learnt. It was pretty simple you just placed the beads where you wanted and held the hotfix on top for a few second. I needed to be careful not to burn the tulle or let the glue pour out around the edges. 

13/11/12 

The studio is getting even more busy and there’s lots of repairs to be done for the charity fashion show. For the last few days I have continued to repair dresses and bead them. Today I fixed a belt. 

14/11/12 

today i was hotfixing a corset with crystals. I find hotfixing very fun and a very quick process! 

15/11/12

I learnt another beading technique today called the chain stitch. I needed to bead a sequin and a bead down onto a dress but a different way to how i normally sew the beads. I sew through the sequin and back and through the hole again. Then I attached the small bead and sewed backwards securing both beads down at each side. I would repeat this process through the smaller bead and then again through the sequin and sew on. 

16/11/12

Today was exciting as I worked on a dress for miriah carey! The dress was yet to be sewn together so I was working on the bodice sewing the beads on and straightening the beads already sewn down. 

19/11/12

it was a few days before the show so we having been working long hours and we are so busy. Today I was repairing the beads on a dress however the garment looked stretched so the beads where out of place. I discussed the problem with frankie and she said to pull the beads together with clear thread and showed me the stitch. The stitch was very similar to how you would sew in lining (go through the fabric on both sides a few mm’s) this then pulled all the beads neatly together. 

20/11/18

I was given a task to take in a dress from the zip. This was a challenging task for me as I had never done this before. Firstly, I unpicked the beads 2cm from the zip and tacked down the rest. Then i tacked down the rest to keep them secure.  Then I tacked a red line 2cm from the seam to the safety pin, so i knew where i was taking it in to. Then I unpicked the zip and cut the fabric 5mm from the seam and folded it behind. I realised that it was very thick and showed this to frankie. We both agreed it would sit neater if i cut the second layer right to the seam and used the top layer to fold over. I pinned the zip to the fabric and sewn the tulle to sandwich it all together neatly. I then pinned the zip securely in place and stitched it to the dress using a similar stitch to what you would use hand sewing lining. I then tacked down the access material to the back of the dress and sewn on the beads that fitted with the pattern of the beads best. After this i then needed to remove the name tag and move it along slightly. I tacked both corners down to secure it in place. 

21/11/18 

It was show day! 

Julien has been working with the national osteoporosis society to create a charity show and auction. We took along the garments we had been working on along with all the equipment we needed to Lancashire house and set up backstage. We double checked each outfit making sure they were all ready. Once the models arrived we fitted them into their shoes so they could do a run through on the catwalk. Afterwards we got them dressed for social media photos. Before we knew it the show came around extremely quickly. My model had 3 looks and they were very complicated and heavy therefore i had a partner to help me. The show was extremely successful and raised over £100,000.  

23/11/18

We spent today tidying up the studio and unpacking the garments and equipment from the show and taking what needed to go, to the archive. 

26/11/18

Unfortunately, today Debnams dresses came back to us from the manifucturor wrong and they were needed for a launch in a couple of days. I spent the day hotfixing dresses to add to the beads. 

27/11/18

Today i was beading the fringes on kimonos and dresses to add more glamour to them. 

28/11/19

A dress had come back the wrong color. The dress was orange but the lace was light orange and needed to be to same color as the dress. Our only, quick solution was to color in the lace carefully with pen. I placed paper underneath the section i was working on and carefully coloured in. The dress looked better once it had been compleated. 

5/12/18

The studio had been extremely quiet after the show. At work julien was sending out cards to people along with his new ski collection. We had a competition at work to see who’s handwriting he preferred. He chose mine. Therefor, i spent half the day writing out cards to famous people, bloggers and bloggers to go with their ski outfit to promote the new collection. 

10/12/18

Today i have been set the task to do some research for the next collection. I researched couture, glamorous swimwear, editorials and art decor on jewelry, drawings and exterior and interior elements in Miami. 

Today i was helping out with the garments for boyzone. My first task was to sew the embellished band to the blazer. I stitched all around the blazer and placed it on the mannequin. Becky asked for me to move the belt up higher along the neck as it wasnt sitting neatly on the back. Once i moved it up it still made the fabric pleat. we discussed and decided to use a singular thread with closer stitches and with less tension. This helped smoothen out the fabric a lot. 

13/12/18 

Today i helped pin the embroidered photocopies onto the garment so we could get an overall idea of what the garments would look like. I traced off the pattern for the collar of the blazer and cut out the pattern. I needed to be precise so the lines matched at both sides.

14/12/18 

It was my last day in the studio and again I was sad to leave after having a great experience. In the studio i was required to adapt to a fast paced and pressurized environment. This required organization and effective planning. Work in the studio included working in sync with other team members as well as being able to work eddiciently on my own. Throughout my experience i have gained confidence in my own ability and increased my creativity levels, whilst being able to work from my own initiative. Regarding work, my responsibilities included, fixing dresses, beading, researching and running general errands. As part of this i learnt embroidery and embellishment stitch techniques as well as gathering a further understanding of garment construction. I contributed to many different projects, Helping produce finished garments for clients and repair previous garments from many different collections for the show.

[elizabethchapman-blog1]

unfortunately, i had to move back to the UK as i found it impossible to find living accommodation amsterdam. as soon as i returned i started back at leigh hetherington until i could move to london. 

my first day back and leigh had me doing finishing touches on dresses and tacking. 

19/09/18

leigh has an idea to make a dress filled with detachable poppies  for people to buy for remembrance day. Leigh had recently been to a wedding fair and spoken to a friend of Tanya Bardsley from housewives of Cheshire and said that she would get in touch with Tanya to see if she would wear it. I spent the day making pattern pieces for small medium and large poppies and then cutting them on red sheer organza. 

22/09/18 

I recently won a competition to come to london fashion week and I was invited to Bobby Ashley’s show! 

It was a great experience to watch a show and check out designers in the pop up stores. 

Bobby’s collection was a range from womens and mens wear  influenced by disney cartoons. It was a very interesting collection. 

I spent the day gathering research and inspiration. 

25/09/18

after a few days of cutting hundreds of poppies on the grain i then needed to sew 5mm at the bottom of the poppies. I did this in a continuous line of stitch. 

26/09/18

once i had done this task i cut each poppy from the stitch and pressed the 5mm and pinned together the poppies in twos, ready to sew round. 

27/09/18 

i spend the day sewing a 5mm seam around the poppies

01/10/18

after i had sewn around the poppies i then cut them down closer to the seam and turned them inside out and pressed them. 

04/10/19 

Once the petals had been finished, i then needed to sew in the veins on with the machine. 

06/10/19 

after this i then hand stitched the corner of the bottom part of the poppy to middle and repeated this on both sides. 

09/10/19 

once i had finished this task i then joined three petals together from the bottom to create a flower and hand stitched them together. After creating one we realised that the poppies didn’t overlap enough so for the next ones i overlapped them more. 

13/10/19 

the poppies were nearly complete! just one last step. once they were all joined together i then needed to bead the middle with black beads. 

15/10/19 

once all the poppies had been made and Leigh had made the patterns for the dress I began to cut the fabric.  To cut out the skirt it was fairly challenging as the skirt was huge and there wasn’t enough room on the table. I pinned as much as i could in sections as I moved the pattern piece and fabric and then cut it. As I cut each section of the skirt Leigh began to sew it together and Jenny was making the bodice. 

18/10/18

Once the skirt and bodice was made we pinned it onto the mannequin and began to position and pin the poppies onto them. 

After a few hours of positioning the poppies Leigh decided that she wanted the poppies to flow around the dress in the shape of a wreath and continued to pin the poppies around the dress and tack them all together like a chain of poppies so that they were detachable. 

20/10/18 

Whilst Leigh continues with the poppies she allowed me to make a faux fur shawl as I had previously said that I was interested in learning how to work with fur. 

Leigh told me to cut into fur I needed to turn over the fabric so the fur was on the table and cut carefully. I pinned a line where I needed to cut the fur using the measurements she gave me. I then needed to trim down the edges of the fur by 8mm to make it easier to pin in the lining. 

after this I then cut out the lining. The lining was the same size as the fur so I drew onto the lining where i needed to cut. Due to the lining moving a lot I had to tape down the edges to prevent this. 

Once the lining was cut out I then began to pin it around the edges by 1cm by putting both right sides together. I needed to leave a few cm’s to allow me to pull the shawl through after sewing it together. I began pinning the corners and centre and then eased the lining in, making sure all of the fur was tucked inside and not trapped. Once I pinned half of it i realised I left the gap on the bottom of the shawl and realised this would be much harder to hand sew together as the fur would get in the way. I re pinned the lining and left a gap at the top. 

I then sew a 1cm seam allowance very carefully and then pulled the shawl through the gap I left open and hand stitched the rest of the lining so that you couldn’t see the stitches. 

The finished garment. 

21/10/18 

Leigh had some spare fabric so I cut the fur with the same measurements as the previous shawl I made and continued the same steps to make another shawl. 

22/10/18 

Today I made another shawl with fur Leigh had already cut out. Due to there not being enough lining left to match the colour I had to connect two pieces of lining so it would have a seam in the middle of the shawl lining. I halved the measurements of the lining and added a 1cm seam allowance to one smaller side of each piece. I sewed the lining together and then sewed it to the fur. After i had sewn it i realised that the middle seam didn’t sit in the centre and asked Leigh if I should do it again. Leigh said it would be fine for a sample but in future to pin and  tack the seam down before sewing it all. 

23/10/18 

the poppy dress was finally finished and ready for Tanya to wear at the weekend and it looked fabulous! 

24/10/18

Today I was making cravats. 

I cut 3 out with the fabric on the fold using a pattern piece. I pinned each one together and left a gap at the top soon to realise you wouldn’t notice the hand stitching as much in the middle, therefor I left a gap there. I sewed a 1cm seam allowance and pulled through the cravat and then carefully pressed the edges and hand sewed up the gap. 

I then pinned the centre to the middle using the measurements from the pattern. 

I then sewed a 5mm seam allowance from the centre. 

27/10/18 

Photo’s from the photoshoot: 

29/10/18 

This week Leigh had me tracing off patterns without the seam allowance. 

30/10/18 

The poppy dress went up in intu metro centre. An amazing display. 

05/11/19 

This week I was tracing off patterns and altering them. 

I needed to trace off the pattern without the errors Leigh had crossed out and make the pattern smaller. Once I made the pattern I added 1cm, 3cm and 1.5cm seam allowances to different areas. Once I had done this I needed to make sure the length of the bodice was correct in each pattern and the notches were in the correct place. One pattern was shorter that the others so i curved the edge out making it slightly longer. The notch was slightly out of measurement also therefor, I put in my own. 

7/11/19 

My last day on placement at this placement! After coming back I feel as though I was given much more challenging and trusting tasks that I really enjoyed and learned so much from. I have a greater concept of pattern making in garment construction and Have learnt how to make many new things, including working with fur! I’m also very pleased that Leigh offered me a part time job when I move back to newcastle so I can continue to work at this lovely place! 

[elizabethchapman-blog1]

I moved to amsterdam!!

03/09/18

My first day at Iris Van Herpen! I was so excited and a little nervous. I was greeted by 16 interns and the supervisor! With Mia, I was shown around the studio and the building so I knew where everything was stored. I was given a task immediately after helping another intern out with the sample she had created. The sample looked amazing! I helped cut out the acetate and pin it for the sample. 

After lunch I was moved off this and put onto a new dress that was being created for a museum. I was overwhelmed yet excited to already be given such a high role. 

The dress had plastic flowers pinned to the dress symmetrical and we needed to tack where every flower that was placed so when we take them off the sew them back on we know exactly where to put them. 

04/09/18

after we finished tacking we began sewing the flowers in after we did a trial test on fabric and Petra, the supervisor checked it. To secure the flowers in place included the process of sewing three flowers together to make them sturdy and then make small holes next the the flower legs and to then cut and burn the fabric to melt the material preventing any fraying. After this we place the legs through the cut gap and sewed through the fabric then through the hole, keeping the stitch tight so that you could see the stitch as little as possible. We then repeated it on the other side. We needed to measure each side to double check the tacking was in the correct place and that the flowers were symmetrical.  I started on the front. 

05/09/18

Back on the flower dress! 

I began working on the bottom whilst another intern sewed the flowers into the seams and another intern helped with the front. We were against time so we needed as many hands as possible but it did get fiddly. Time passed and we ended up with 4 interns on the dress at a time max. 

07/08/19

By the end of today we pretty much finished the front of the dress appart from the shoulder which we couldn’t get to and the center front as iris was unsure if she wanted the legs sewn into the dress or cut off the legs off and sewn to the dress. Iris checked the progress of the dress and was pleased with it. 

10/08/19

Today we finished little things off on the front of the dress and cut the legs off the flowers that were going along the bottom. We then began to sew the back. It looked extremely confusing but worked well together as a team to work individually on little sections. I began, again at the bottom. 

11/09/18

When sewing the back we came across a huge mistake. The center back had been marked in the wrong pace by a previous intern who left and now the measurements were wrong. However, when we moved the flowers to the correct center back to realise that this would cause a disaster. Due to moving them further one way they got closer to the flowers on one side and further away on the other side, but the measurements were correct for those flowers. We were all very confused what had happened and spoke to Petra about it. We came up on a decision that it was due to the curves been different on each side with the wire or the pattern for the dress had been wrong. We resulted in doing everything from eye so if it looked symmetrical we would sew. Iris then checked the dress and asked for a few alterations with moving things closer and she made a decision on the centre front for the flowers to be sewn into the dress. 

12/09/18 

 The dress needed to be finished today to allow the lining to go in tomorrow and then we could have a full day to check everything over and pack it for delivery to the museum.

We altered the dress to Iris preference and sewn the center front- we were finally able to sew in the lining! The lining was ready for us to hand stitch into the dress. We were taught how to stitch the lining and then did a hand sewing sample and got it checked with Petra. An intern was put on the dress to finish more final things and to tack down the seams inside the dress which were getting attached to the lining.

Meanwhile, I was moved off the dress and put onto the triangle dress. Triangle shaped plastic was cut out and then sewn in strips onto fabric and then draped onto the dress. I was sewing the strips onto the dress by hand this was a very tricky and time consuming task.

After sewing one section I was taken off the dress and put onto making a new sample for the next collection which was so exciting! The leather was laser cut and placed onto paper in shape to dry overnight to mould its shape.

 We had to spray glue onto the printed pattern paper so that the bottom would stick. 

Afterwards, we placed the black leather on top and weave it into the white. We used a photo reference to help us. 

After weaving the black we repeated this process with the white and then black again. This was the final outcome! 

13/09/18

Jess and I attempted to pin in the lining however it was made incorrect. It was too long on one side and to short on the other. 

Whilst waiting for Petra to finish her meeting with Iris I worked on another dress fixing any damages.   

We spoke to Petra about the problem and she asked us to make it fit as best we could.

 It was the end of the day and we had only just started hand sewing the lining, however Petra told us that the deadline had been extended and we had another day. The other intern and I stayed back to hand sew the center front of the lining. 

14/09/18

We continued to sew the lining in however we were very distracted with a film crew that had come in to make a short film. We were asked to move the dress a lot as well as participate in the film which took up time but it was extremely exciting! We  took a break from the dress and were told to work alongside Iris whilst they took shots. 

After a long day we finished the ling and the dress was complete and looked fantastic! We took photos of the dress and packed it up ready to send to the museum. 

Even though I was only interning at Iris Van Herpen for two weeks it was still great experience. It was a pleasure to work with an amazing designer and great people and see such creative work. I Learnt how the atelier was ran along with new couture techniques. It was a difficult placement as a lot of the time you were left on your own but this was a great chance to problem solve and for me to use my initiative. It was a great chance to gather research and inspiration and see how garments are made with unusual materials and techniques. I was very lucky to make a dress the whole time I was there as It was in such a short space of time. It was very interesting to see how the dress was made and solve any problems that occured and then to see your hard work in a museum was extremely satisfying. 

[elizabethchapman-blog1]

First day of placement

07/05/19

The first day at Leigh Hetherington Bridal Boutique. I was shown around the shop, workshop and went through all the health and safety risks.

My first task was to gently take out strands of fabric to fray the fabric so that it could be attached the bottom of a jacket. The client was hoping for a chanel like suit.

21/05/19

Throughout the week I have been helping out with the ‘chanel’ look alike suit. I have traced off pattern pieces and altered them. Then, I cut the fabric and lining out. I have been sewing up the lining and have been taught how to hold the bottom of the lining connected to the jacket with tiny stitches going through the lining once every inch. 

once the jacket was finished it needed one last finishing touch. I placed the black embellished cord around the edge of the jacked and sewn it into place. 

26/05/18 

I learn how to make buttons today! 

Leigh gave me a circle shape stencil to draw around to cut out the white satin. I then had to cut the lace to place on top. I placed the material into the machine with the top of the button facing down with the plastic fastener on top. I then pulled down the lever on the machine hard enough for all of the parts to come together to create a button.

30/05/18

Today I was given the task of cutting out a pattern on calico and sewing up the corset toile. I pinned the pieces into place matching the notches and sewed a 1.5cm seam allowance. Not only did I learn how to make a corset, I was taught how to put the bones in correctly and how to cut and press the seams. When there was a curved edge you would cut the seam right down to the stitch line every few centimetres. At the front of the bodice you would cut the outer seam around the curved bust but leave the seam underneath. This allowed the seam to sit nicely on top of the bust also making it easier to steam and sew the bones in. I cut the bones to fit the seam and placed a small triangle shape of calico in half at the top and bottom of the seams (to make it sturdy) and placed the bones inside and sewed around the bones and calico. 

Once I had learnt how to make the corset I was then moved on to cotton. This was the bodice that was getting placed inside the dress.

05/06/19

Today Leigh was needing help to get a dress finished. The other intern and I have spent the day sewing through beads of a Gatsby style, vintage dress. We needed to sew through the beads so that when Leigh cut the back of the dress all the beads wouldn’t fall off.

01/06/19

Once we had removed the unwanted beads from the dress and sewn through the others so that they didn’t fall off we checked over the dress to make sure no other beads had come off. Once we checked over the dress we then sew the beads back onto the back of the dress with a double thread so that the same pattern on the straps smoothly flowed from the straps all the way around the edge of the back. We soon realised this was a lot harder than it looked. We needed the beads to go straight, however once you had sewn a line of beads they soon moved out of place. As soon as we realised this we asked leigh if there was anything we could do to prevent this. She then showed us a better technique to sew on the beads where you sew through the fabric then back through the beads and then back through the fabric. This task was extremely time consuming.

03/06/19

We finally finished beading the outline of the dress however the beads still wernt perfectly straight due to some being too tight which causes some beads to push out of place. Once Leigh had checked the dress over she asked for us to go through all of the beads again the straighten them out. This helped the problem a lot.

04/06/19

Due to previous beading, the intern and I were allocated onto another dress that a woman had brought in. The dress was brought in by a woman for leigh to alter It. However, the dress wasn’t made to a high quality standard and a lot of the beads had fallen off, therefore, Leigh asked us to sew them back on.

10/06/19

I have now been at the boutique over a month and im trusted to do things a lot more. Leigh is currently making a dusk pink lace dress for a woman. Today she asked me to cut out different shapes of lace and pin them onto the dress to then sew. A few hours passed and I had pinned the bottom half of the lace. Leigh then messaged the woman with a photograph of the dress to see if she was pleased with how the lace was placed onto the dress.

11/06/19

The customer had got back to leigh and wanted the lace spread out further and to look less symmetrical. We altered the lace and once we had come to a final result I began sewing the lace on. Leigh told me to sew tiny stitches through the lace then to go through the tulle but to be careful not to sew through the under skirt.

12/06/19 

Today I moved onto a new dress. A bride was wanting a fishtail dress that had pleated/ruffled tulle on the bodice. Leigh told my to hand stitch down both edges of the fabric with about 2 inches apart and to then pull the fabric to create the please. I then had to pin the fabric onto the bodice securely forming lots of different sized pleats. I really enjoyed this task as I enjoy working on the mannequin and I felt like this was a very high role being in charge of someone’s wedding dress.

20/06/18

Due to a previous injury I had at work, it now had healed and I could work back on the machine making corsets. Today I made another one in calico.I only needed to bone half of the corset as this task was now becoming easy for me. Once I had made this corset I moved straight onto doing it in cotton.

21/06/18

Today I cut out a dress in calico and sew all the parts together. Once I had sewn the dress I then needed to cut the curved seams and press them the same I would for the corset. I then placed bones from the top to the waist. The front of the dress needed to be double boned as the woman wearing the dress has a large bust.

23/06/18

Today I was set a task I had never done before. I made a bodice to fit the customer. Leigh gave me a draft corset pattern and told me how much needed to be taken off to make the bodice smaller. Leigh told me when to take off the measurement and how much needed to be took off. I then curved it out with a set square. After this I we realised that the corset wasn’t going to flow smoothly along the top. I needed to cut off some of the top allowing it to flow nicely. I then needed to measure the distance between the notches to make sure they all fitted correctly, however some were out by a few mm. This is common to happen after changing parts of the pattern. Leigh then told me all I needed to do was rub out the ones that were wrong and put in my own. after this, I then traced off the pattern and cut them out.

 After this, I then cut the corset out of cotton and began sewing the pieces together. 

Once I had sewn it all together the corset fit well together and the edges ran smoothly. After checking it over with Leigh I then begun to place the bones in.

The toile corset fit the customer perfectly. I was then able to make to corset for the actual bodice for the wedding dress so everything had to be perfect! 

04/07/18

Today I made another corset, however, today I had to make it slightly different. Instead of the bones being put in at 1.7mm from the edge they needed to go all the way from the top and bottom double layered so it was more sturdy. This was because it was going to be placed inside a dress. 

06/07/18 

My last day at Leigh Hetherington Bridal

My internship has come to an end! Today I was running errands and helping finish things in the workshop before I left. I was sewing up hems to tacking dresses that needed to be taken in or up. it was an eventful yet busy last day. 

it was very sad to say goodbye to my colleagues and boss. I had an amazing experience on my placement and enjoyed everyday, I will miss it and the people! I was set many different tasks throughout the months I was there and learn many new skills and techniques that i’ll take on and hopefully use in the future. I also gained great experience as I was able to see many garments grow from start to finish and getting a gathered an insight into how bridal boutiques are ran. 

Due to tasks on many garments needing to be finished in time for fittings and them needing to be complete in time for someone’s wedding the company was working in a fast pace. This meant that I needed to complete my tasks promptly but at a professional manor. Whether it be hand beading or finishing a garment, creating toiles or bodices. This helped me with my time management, which is crucial to have good time management not only in my studies but in the future to make sure i meet my deadlines and don’t rush anything. It also helped me get used to working in a fast paced environment. 

Working with Leigh helped me become more confident with pattern and toile making, which i needed more help with. I learnt how to alter patterns to make made to measure garments along with what measurements you need to take from a customer to help make the patterns. Leigh also taught me the best ways of cutting certain fabrics and hot to be cost efficient using lay planning. I also learnt great embellishment skills such as hand beading and sewing lace along with making embellished flowers and applying them to a garment. I also found making buttons interesting as it was something I had never done before!  

[elizabethchapman-blog1]

Applying for placement

I am currently in my second year studying Fashion at Northumbria University, hoping to obtain an internship in doing something I love. 

Once I finished my first semester and had feedback on my work, I began to edit my portfolio, making it stronger and more appealing, along with adding in work from my previous studies. I added in my last project from my art foundation studies that linked well with haute couture designers. In my second online portfolio I added work from my last project at college, which included an embroidered, lace dress inspired by flowers and trees. This section of my portfolio shows a great attention to detail. I used this for my portfolio as I am interested in designers that pay close attention to detail and therefore planned to apply to intern for bridal couture or designers that use a lot of detail and embroidery in their work. 

I was finally all set to apply for internships!

A previous student who studied at Northumbria just finished her placement at Iris Van Herpen. Iris happens to be my favourite designer, therefore, I looked into interning for her. I checked out her website, found an email address and sent off my creative c.v and online portfolio along with a cover letter. Within several hours I received an email back asking to fill out an internship form. However, before I had emailed back, I was sent another email asking if I would like an interview. When I received this email I was ecstatic and excited. I replied with the filled in form and now have a confirmed interview date on the 1st of May. I am currently searching for accommodation and flights for the journey. Before my interview I will study even more about Iris and her work. Also, I will prepare my portfolio and samples along with detailed photographs of my garments. 

I currently have a house in Newcastle and would like a placement there until my tenancy ends. I searched jobs on Indeed, Fashion Workie and Fashion United. I found a paid studio internship at END clothing which involved helping with styling and photoshoots. Although I hope for a job designing in the future I am still extremely interested in the whole styling and photoshoot procedure. I believe it would be great experience for me. I send off my portfolio, c.v and a personalised cover letter and heard back from them within a couple of days confirming an interview date on the 11th of April. Before this interview I will prepare my portfolio alongside another one with photographs from shoots I have assisted or taken. 

Feeling delighted after receiving two interviews, I still began searching for other placements all around the UK as well as the rest of Europe in case I’m not successful in my interviews. I emailed a woman who owns an independent fashion brand - Fash1.uk with my c.v and portfolio as well as sending them off to Jules B, an independent retailer. I'm currently hoping for them to get back to me, but in the meantime I am applying to bridal boutiques in Newcastle and searching for other jobs for when my tenancy ends. I have found many designers that use embellishment on garments that are based in London and will apply for them along with other designers that I am intrigued by in the near future. 

-09/04/18

I recently applied for Hermione de paula and got asked to do a placement there immediately. I explained that I couldn't move to london for another few months and they said that that is fine but asked for my help for the upcoming week as they were busy and I agreed. 

11/04/18

I had my interview at END! i was extremely nervous as this was my first ever formal interview but i felt prepared. I answered around three pages of questions and feel like I answered them well. After the questions I went through my portfolio and photos of my own photoshoots and explained my work. I felt like my interview went really well however they were hoping for someone to intern for a full year which I wouldn’t be able to do as ide be back at university. 

15/04/18

I began my days work at hermione de paula and met some lovely people! the studio was busy as we had clients in from america. When I arrived I was shown around the studio and signed a contract agreement. I was put on a task straight away to cut around embroidered flowers. After I had finished this task I was helping the other interns with a new dress. A woman was wanting a beaded floral dress for an evening ball. I spent most of the day re-beading the dress. Later on in the day the supervisor had pinned the flowers I previously cut out onto a vail ready for me to hand stitch. I finished sewing them all on in time for the day to end. Although I was only in the studio one day it was a great opportunity for me as it was the first time being in a fashion studio and it was interesting to see how things were ran.  

25/04/18

I heard back from END and they offered me the job however I had to turn it down as they couldn’t shorten the contract and i feel like I would definitely need to do at least one fashion studio placement. 

01/05/18

after emailing many boutiques and fashion companies in newcastle I received a response from Leigh Hetherington Bridal boutique to come for an interview. 

Leigh was lovely and explained that she has the shop and studio upstairs. We went through my portfolio and had a friendly chat. She liked my work and asked when I could start. I now have my first internship sorted and start next week!

04/05/18

It was my interview and trial day for Iris van herpen! 

I felt more confident now as I had been to two interviews and worked inside a fashion studio before but still felt nervous as I wanted the internship a lot! I was greeted by paul and asked to work immediately on a dress for Kate Blanchett. I was overwhelmed to be working on such an amazing dress. I was shown how to sew on the felt embellishment and had to do a sample. Once my sample was checked I was moved onto the dress. I spent half of the day on the dress and then was taken for my interview with paul. We chatted about why and what i wanted to learn in the atelier and I answered his questions and then went through my portfolio and samples. 

I was put back onto the dress for the rest of the day. once the day had finished, paul took me aside to confirm that I had the internship and was able to start in September for four months. I was extremely happy!