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When I first heard that I was offered the opportunity to study abroad in Spain for my Fall of 2018, I knew I just had to take advantage of the fact that I would be spending a whole semester in Europe: a continent encompassing 7 out of 10 of the Global Fashion Capitals in the World.
As a double-major in Business and Economics, I have not had as much time as I would have liked to work on my craft, but through the grant I was able to do this for a whole semester.
Originally, I had planned to attend the London Street Fashion Week, an open-to-the-public series of events in September which is similar and as amazing as the official London Fashion Week, unfortunately my school schedule conflicted. Despite this, I was able to do a week and a half long trip in London before my actual Spain program began. While in London I visited 5 different museums dedicated to fashion and other topics. I believe that fashion can be inspired by anything and found anywhere, it is not simply about the clothing which we wear on our bodies. My favourite museum was definitely The Fashion and Textile Museum which boasts the most revolutionary fashion, textiles and jewellery designs in modern times. One of the main reasons I wanted to go to London was because they are well known for their street fashion, a form of fashion which does not emerge from the studios but rather from the youth culture. As an International Student and traveler I have been fortunate enough to visit and live in various parts of the world and be exposed to a greater variety of cultural influences. While it may be easier in some countries to see the cultural influences on fashion, others have more subtle but still present influences. My hopes for this journey was to allow myself to be inspired by everything I was coming into contact with whilst questioning how this has and could impact the fashion which I was seeing around me. I then traveled to Paris where I visited 2 fashion museums and learnt about the different eras of fashion. Paris is another city known for its street fashion which allowed me to draw cultural fashion comparisons with London. While abroad I sketched various designs which I hope to bring to life once I graduate. This grant really allowed me an extensive background of the fashion industry. Post graduation, I plan to go further with my love for fashion and attain a certificate in fashion design and hopefully start my own fashion line.