London Fashion Week is one of the ‘Big Four’ fashion showcases of the world (Milan, Paris, New York and London). It is essentially the epicentre of fashion; full of big, imposing names like Simon Rocha, Anya Hindmarch, Mulberry and more. So imagine you are a 22 year old, in your last year of university, and you are watching your designs donned on models strutting down the catwalk of one of the biggest fashion events in the world.
Bekki Brennan, in her final year at Birmingham City University, entered the FAD (Fashion Awareness Direct) competition. The FAD competition, described as a “undeniable springboard” by Vogue.com, is an incredible opportunity for budding fashion designers. The minds behind FAD designed it “to inspire, support and promote young designers at the earliest stage in their careers”. This year, there were 120 applicants from across the UK, all from different universities, with 20 finalists picked overall. From the 3 people in her year that got put forward, Bekki got into the final.
“These internships allowed her creativity to flourish and create designs worthy of LFW”
Bekki previously interned with Peter Pilotto, a high end designer, and then moved on to do some internships with high street brands like Oh My Love and ASOS. These internships allowed her creativity to flourish and create designs worthy of LFW. She states that her inspiration for her designs was the art movement constructivism. She told Impact she “looked at its traditional routes, artist Walter Dexel mainly inspired the silhouette and a modern day artist Albert Ruiz Villar, mainly inspired the print and the fabrics.”
She described the experience as “really rewarding” and the levity of the situation was not lost on Bekki, “opportunities like that don’t come around often, so it’s given me a really great platform to show my work and also a confidence boost”. The FAD offered Bekki an opportunity which anyone eager to get involved in the fashion industry could not pass up. She plans to use this platform to propel her career and is hoping to go into commercial fashion.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BQxQ8W-Fv8f/?taken-by=bekkibrennan
FAD does incredible work, giving life-changing opportunities to people with genuine talent, a flair for fashion and who will work hard. Bekki said “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 a bit more hope that I can do it!”
Bekki has set herself up well for a career in the fashion industry, making her LFW debut at just 22. And while that fact may make us all feel a little inadequate and under-accomplished, she has also proved that if you set your mind to it, you can accomplish anything. Watch this space…
Elle Magill
Image Credit: Ivars Krutainis via Unsplash
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