Free event in East London offers an insider look at the fashion industry

On Saturday, February 22, from 11am to 5pm, Making It: Careers in Fashion and Costume will take place at Stratford Circus Arts Centre. Designed for 16 to 24-year-olds, it will offer a series of practical sessions and insider tips for people keen to carve out a career in the fashion and costume industry.

Packed full of talks, workshops, design displays, one-to-one advice sessions, and live make-up, illustration and tailoring demonstrations, attendees will get the chance to meet a range of experts, from fashion stylists to street style photographers, illustrators, make-up artists, hip-hop performers, fashion designers, and leading figures from the British Fashion Council.

The event has been developed in collaboration with young people from Stratford-based Legacy Youth Voice and East Works Alumni, as well as the V&A’s youth collective CreateVoice. It includes presentations of new work by east London-based students and creatives including Fashion Awareness Direct, University of East London and Paynter Jackets.

Highlights from the talks programme include:

• Careers in the fashion industry – the British Fashion Council’s Judith Rosser-Davies talks through the different jobs available in the fashion industry and how to get the skills and experience to succeed
• Becoming a stylist – leading fashion entrepreneur and celebrity stylist Taslima Khan on what it takes to make it as a stylist
• Careers in costume design – designer Dean Blunkell on the skills needed to break into costume design
• Sportswear design – London College of Fashion course leader Claudine Rousseau shares her experience in the sportswear industry
• Ways into fashion – designer and University of East London lecturer Namal Lanka talks through the courses, free fashion projects, training and job opportunities available in east London right now
• Street style photography – a conversation with photographers Eddie Otchere, who has captured world-renowned hip-hop and rap artists from Snoop Dogg to Biggie Smalls, and Adam Ali
• Being a fashion designer – Stratford-based fashion designer Jane Bowler talks to the V&A’s Artist in Residence, Moses Quiquine, about their route into fashion
• Creating Fashion Portfolios – designer and lecturer Jane Francis gives practical tips on creating a compelling portfolio
• Costume for the Stage – freelancer Catherine Kodicek talks about making and maintaining costumes for the stage
• Fashion Shops: A Thing of the Past? – designers Steven Tai (Steven Tai Studio) and Sabinna Rachimova (SABINNA) from The Trampery Fish Island Village, take part in a panel discussion about e-commerce and its effect on fashion
• Hip-Hop Style – members from Breakin’ Convention, an annual hip-hop theatre festival organised by Sadler’s Wells, discuss their style and the importance of hip-hop as an identity expressed through music and clothes. Also includes a live performance
• Creating Socially Sustainable Fashion – luxury fashion design consultant Avis Charles explores how designers and creatives support the development of international artisans and what this means for creating new global fashion futures

Making It: Careers in Fashion and Costume is part of a series of events taking place in east London in the lead-up to V&A East. Rooted in east London with an international outlook, V&A East will harness the power of art, design and performance to inspire the next generation of artists, designers, makers and thinkers.

For more information visit vam.ac.uk