Work diary: Fashion designer
Post categories: Factual ,ÌýUp for Hire
| 15:07 UK time, Thursday, 27 October 2011
Bethan Silverwood only graduated from her MA at London's Central Saint Martins in April. In that short time, the 24-year-old has already been featured in Dazed, Love and I-D online, shown at London Fashion Week and Milan Design Fair, works for Greek designer Mary Katramtzou and is in-house print and embroidery designer for Lulu Guinness.
Name: Bethan Emily Silverwood
Lives: London
Childhood dream job: Fashion designer
Other jobs I've done: The usual: shop work and waitressing during my summer breaks from study.
Current job: Print and embroidery designer for Lulu Guinness.
Number of years in the industry: This is my first year in the industry.
Typical hours: 9.30-5.30. I am very lucky in this industry to have a job where there are set hours that don't extend into the early hours of the morning!
Qualifications/courses I took for this job: BA Fashion and Textiles Design and MA Fashion Central Saint Martins.
First job: My first unpaid job was work experience with Laura Lees. My first paid job is this one at Lulu Guinness, which I found on the Jobseekers website!
Funniest/strangest day at work: There was one memorable day during my masters. The day of fittings, the day before showing at London Fashion Week, where I had to remake about six pairs of shoes within about seven hours. I survived off pure adrenaline and coffee of course! It was exhilarating and extremely stressful as well.
Toughest career moment so far: Behind the scenes at London Fashion week everything was going wrong. We almost had to pull a couple of looks because the models refused to walk in the shoes. I could see all of my hard work falling apart just as I got to the most important moment in my career so far. I was so anxious I didn't even watch my own show from backstage!
The biggest myth about my job is: That it is glamorous! It's all about hard work and dedication, not manicures and high heels!
If you want to work in this industry you need: You need to either have a lot of money or be willing to work very hard, quite often for free, for a long period of time.
The tip I'd pass on to anyone starting this job is: Work hard, but don't take it too seriously at the end of the day, it should be a job, not your whole life!
If I hadn't had done this job..: I would have been a baker - I love cakes!
Jane Fitz-Gerald is part of the Up for Hire Interactive team.
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Comment number 1.
At 7th Nov 2011, Miske wrote:Nice story Jane. I like your post.
Do you have another post similar like this about Jewelry or Diamond Designer?
Thanks.
Complain about this comment (Comment number 1)