BRIXTON
Fashion Workshops in Brixton Awe inspiring success!
Autumn Project: Sept - Dec 2002

A series of Fashion Workshops for pre A-level teenagers in Brixton has been successfully completed and was received with enthusiastic praise. Twenty-five year 10 and 11 students were invited to take part in this dynamic project, which aims to introduce fashion as a potential career path, as well as developing individual creativity within the fashion field.

The series of two-hour workshops were led by designers, fashion experts and lecturers from the London College of Fashion, and covered topics encompassing the design process. In 'Designer's Inspiration', students embarked their fashion journey making storyboards, based on themes such as Frivolous Fun, Soft Security, Organic Outdoors, Water World and Linear Formalism. These themes were used as a reference point throughout the course and in subsequent workshops the students produced textiles, constructed a maquette of a handbag, worked in 3D on the stands, customised t-shirts for fashion styling, produced a
fashion show and discussed the nature of how prediction cycles work.

The final workshop, 'The Way Forward', was aimed at meeting the criteria needed to gain acceptance to Fashion schools and colleges. As a result of this highly energetic and inspirational course, each participant produced a portfolio of work to use towards GCSEs
or college applications. At the end of the course, participating students were given a certificate of attendance signed by Roy Peach, Dean of Fashion Design and Technology at the London College of Fashion and presented by Molly Holloway, Image Consultant and FAD
Director.

Helen Sumner, teacher of Design and Technology at Pimlico School, commented how the Year 10 girls who attended the workshops were noticeably more advanced compared to their peers, thanks to the motivation and skills gained through the project.

Former students, Celia Campbell and Erin Hayes, were runners-up in a recent Young Designers Award Competition organised by The Fashion Designers and Craftmakers Network held on December 7th 2002.

Celia's mother said,

The project was conceived and developed by Fashion Awareness Direct (FAD) and was run in collaboration with the London College of Fashion and the Baytree Centre in Brixton, funded through the CoVE initiative. The first series of Fashion Futures took place in January
2002 in a project awarded under the European Youth Programme and supported by the European Commission. FAD is currently running two Fashion Future workshops at the London College of Fashion premises in Hackney, also funded through the CoVE initiative.

This project has been funded by the Learning's & Skills Council "Centres for Vocational Excellence" initiative.