Company Fashion Forum

Last Thursday I attended Company's Fashion Forum in Manchester. Yes, I know this post is a little over due but better late than never ey?

I have to admit, without sounding big headed, I wasn't sure how much I'd take away from this evening besides a fabulous goodie bag. After all, there's only so much a person can tell you about how to make it in a certain industry before you just have to go and find out for yourself. And the amount of time I sit in bed on my laptop researching careers is rather staggering. But I was pleasantly surprised to come away from the evening with a few more great tips!

After much trekking around parts of Manchester I'd never seen before, we finally found the venue! The density of fashionable girls hanging around is a good clue that you're getting close.

It's a good idea to take a note pad and pen (or an iPad if you're fancy like that) so that you can make notes. It didn't actually cross my mind to bring any paper, but thankfully I ended up going straight from college which turned out to be a God send.

The event was kicked off with all the panel members introducing themselves, and then editor Victoria White took the reins and briefly interviewed each person individually so we could learn more about them and how they came to be where they are now. It was quite refreshing to hear that one of the panellists had a very strong regional accent, showing that you don't need to be based in London to make it in fashion. In fact, about half of panel were located outside of London!

Vic then handed it over to us fashion wannabes to ask the questions we'd be dying to know. Now I'm not the most confident of people so putting my hand up and asking a question in front of all those people was a no go for me, but luckily we got the opportunity to go down to the front and speak to them privately at the end. I took this opportunity and ran with it, maybe a little too far?  I felt like I was hounding those poor women, but maybe it came across as enthusiastic. Let's hope!

All in all it was a great evening. I came away with a bag full of goodies (including my favourite moisturiser that I had almost ran out of at home) and a bunch of great advice. I'd really recommend this event to anyone who is unsure of going. Being only a lower sixth student meant I was probably one of the youngest people there, with most girls currently at uni, but the advice was still invaluable, and you might even bump into someone who is at the university you want to go to, so take the opportunity to ask them about their course!

Here are the top three tips I took away from the evening:

• Magazines etc get hundreds of emails a day and yours will probably be sent to the spam folder, so be different and hand write a letter!
• Don't spend too much time in education. Get your degree and get out. Yet another qualification is yet another year away from your dream. Get some internships instead. Experience is key in this industry!
• Never ever throw away a contact! Keep in touch (professionally or personally) with everyone. The people you study with at uni may end up being the assistant of the person you need to impress.