Hi babes, welcome back to The Fashion Femme and thanks for stopping by. In this post I will be talking about my first year at university studying Fashion Buying and Merchandising at the Manchester Fashion Institute at MMU. I have honestly had such a great year academically and socially. If your starting university this year, or plan to go in the future, I hope this will be helpful! There are so many different fashion degrees these days, maybe buying is the right option for you?
Studying Fashion
When I tell people what course I do they usually say, "what's that?!" well basically, I've been learning creative skills to be able to put together fashion collections (which comes very easy to me) the business side of the retail industry and fiance and costing. Which included a maths element, which is definitely not my favourite subject! It's not an easy course, takes a lot of hard work and determination.
However, I have really enjoyed it, my favourite module has been Business Communications as I have learned about different retail brands, pr and marketing and social media which has strengthened my passion for blogging. Having a bit of knowledge of Adobe programmes, like Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign can really help you out on any fashion course, as everything is digital these days.
It's important to pick a course you are passionate about, obviously you need to get a job at the end of it, but you will be studying this for 3/4 years so you need to really enjoy it!
One of the assignments I really enjoyed was this one where we had to research the target customer of missguided, create trend boards, research fabrics and look into costing to build a collection. It's important to immerse yourself in fashion industry, so sign up to drapers, retail week, read WGSN and all different magazines.
I'm so excited for Level 5, learning more product development and applying for placements! Hopefully I will spend half my placement in London, half in Manchester working in a buying office or in Marketing. It's been my dream since I was doodling designs in primary school to work in fashion, now it's slowly starting to happen... eeek!
Joining a sports team
One of the best pieces of advice I can give to to-be freshers starting university is join a sports team. You will meet (hopefully) an amazing group of people who you will become close friends with, which is especially good when you have moved to a new place. I decided to join football at university and that's honestly the best decision I could have made. My football girls are amazing and I don't know what I would have done without them! Not only do you get to play a sport, there a nights out every Wednesday that are literally epic and if your team is anything like mine, pub night on Thursday and most other nights of the week, tbh.
So if you've always wanted to try rounders, cheerleading, pole dance, rugby, equestrian, have a look at the sports fair. You will have the best year ever! Which brings us to the next section...
Going on tour
Most athletic unions at universities in the UK go on TOUR. Where you, all your teammates and all the other clubs in the university go to Europe for a week to play sport, that's what you tell your mum anyway. It's basically like going to Ibiza, but with the uni football girls and you spend the whole time writing obscenities on each others arm and forcing vodka down freshers throats.
Plus, it's fancy dress every night, seeing the nightlife of Croatia whilst dressed as a carrot, or a Pokemon is not an experience you get very often. Also initiation isn't so bad, it's on the beach and your steaming, and deffo worth it to meet all 10/10 rugby girls/boys/whatever floats your boat- lets face it.
Living in Halls/Houses
Sooo, I didn't have the best experience in halls, hopefully you will have better experience than me. I think the best advice I can give is make the best effort you can to make friends with your flatmates, such as creating a group chat, ask them about their plans for freshers and try to arrange nights out, etc.
If you're really not happy with your flat, go to the accommodation office and arrange to move as soon as possible. Also don't rush into signing a contract for a second year house, and make sure your really happy to live your housemates.
Final words of (sort of) wisdom
Any other questions or if you want to have a chat about anything, tweet me @melxssajordan, I will reply as soon as I can!
