Assignments that got me an A in Fashion Journalism in my first year…

Part 1: Reflecting on the academic side of my First Year at LCF

I am a student at London College of Fashion studying BA (Hons) Fashion Journalism and Content Creation in my second year. I chose this degree because I was looking for a career that will allow space for my love for writing and fashion. I’ll go into my selection process in another blog in more depth - look out for that tea!

This is a reflection on my Year 1 experience on my course; this blog will be split in two parts, this one being about the academic side, and the other about my extra curricular experiences and opportunities.

There were three terms, each with their own assignments. My course can be categorised into three sections: broadcast, print and digital which includes social media. 

ASSIGNMENT 1:

The tea is that I didn’t really like the first assignment at the time. It was a pass or fail, four week assignment that I felt wasn’t centred around fashion journalism, but rather fashion communication which is the school that journalism falls under. We mixed with the other fashion communication courses such as styling and creative direction etc. We had to submit a weekly log which reflected on the lectures and the work we produced in groups during seminars, as well as a 1000 word written report. 

I personally wanted to go straight into Fashion Journalism and start writing investigative articles and review fashion shows. But upon reflection, I understand now why it was important to start with this assignment. In fashion, I will not work alone. I will constantly be interacting with other individuals, from makeup artists to photographers. This assignment was a pass or fail because it wasn’t necessarily about the work we will produce, but rather what we will learn from working with each other. Anyone from those seminars could be my future colleagues, so going in with that perspective gave those lessons a greater purpose and meaning. 

ASSIGNMENT 2:

This assignment was my cup of tea. There was a mixture of written, broadcast and social media tasks that we had to produce for our portfolio of journalism submission as well as an academic essay. It was quite a lot so I summarised it here in these bullet points:

One fashion news story (250 words)

• I covered a launch party for the collaboration between London College of Fashion and The Carlton Jumeirah Hotel for a Christmas themed collection designed by alumni.

One targeted fashion trend feature (800 words) and associated Instagram post

• Focused on dopamine dressing and makeup - I have already posted this article on my blog which you can read here

One catwalk review (800 words)

• I chose Balmain SS23 Ready to Wear - I have already posted this article on my blog which you can read here

One broadcast (video) vox pop (one minute) and accompanying transcript

• I went around Oxford Street asking people what is the most expensive thing they own in the midst of the cost of living crisis - You can find this vox pop on my tiktok

One broadcast (video) fashion mini-documentary (two minutes) with accompanying transcript and associated TikTok post (30 seconds)

• I focused my documentary on the sneaker reselling industry and interviewed a London based show reseller about their experience working in this industry

Research file (20-40 pages)

• Mine was 39 pages documenting my research process for this whole assignment

1200 word essay

• We had to discuss the limitations of Anna Wintour’s quote from The September Issue “Fashion’s not about looking back. It’s always about looking forward”

Alongside all of this, we also had a teeline shorthand test, if you don’t know what this is, look out for the blog post about this. This topic alone needs a whole description of its own. 

I had three months to complete this and even though it seems like we had a lot to do for this assignment, I know that when working in industry I’ll have even less time to do all this. This assignment felt like a warm up to all I’ll be doing in my future career. I allowed myself enough time for each section. 

I achieved an A- for this portfolio of work which I am really proud of. But what is even more interesting is that even though it was a strong piece of written work, as I have learnt more, I can look back on those articles and identify areas I can improve on. 

ASSIGNMENT 3:

This assignment also had multiple components which I have split up in the following paragraphs. 

BETTER LIVES: This was a really interesting unit where we had the choice to choose any other discipline under fashion communication school and have lessons in that chosen subject. I chose styling because I find that it connects well with journalism since journalists tell stories with words, while stylists do the same thing with clothes.

Better Lives project: One of my group styling project outcomes reflecting on masculine femininity.

COLLABORATIVE PROJECT: As the title suggests, this assignment was completed as a group project. We had to make a location based project, the location my group chose was Brixton. Honestly, this was the assignment I struggled with most in Year 1 because I didn’t know much about the area, had never been there and didn’t have much time to create a magazine that fully reflected the culture of that area. Looking back, I should have adapted a more positive attitude towards this assignment despite feeling like I was at a disadvantage and focused on what I could do. Nevertheless, this was a great learning experience for me to practise working in a team and adapt to others ideas in a project. 

FASHION CULTURES AND HISTORIES: This was an academic essay meaning the style of writing had to have a more formal tone and our ideas had to be supported by academic sources. The question we had to answer was “Why does fashion matter”. I really enjoyed this essay because the topic was broad enough for us to interpret it in our own way and specialise our essay to a topic we’re interested in. I began with thinking about why fashion matters in film, however after refining it countless times I narrowed it down to explaining why fashion matters from the costume in Black Panther, focusing on three main characters. This essay taught me how to be very specific with large concepts to be able to translate it in a digestible manner. It was a visual essay so I supported my research with not just literary texts, but also images from primary and secondary sources. I included exhibition visits, movie clips and even comic shops to really have a wide range of sources. I was really proud with the outcome.