My accepted fashion portfolio for university

In this video, Lillian talks us through her fashion portfolio that secured her place to study Fashion Design at Falmouth. 

"Hi guys, my name is Lillian. I'm currently a second year Fashion Design student here at Falmouth University, and today I'm just going to be taking you through my accepted fashion portfolio."

"So, we'll walk through it. I'll talk about why I selected certain pieces, as well as discuss the layout and organisation of the portfolio itself, and then at the end, I'll just give you a couple of tips and maybe mention some things that I would have done differently if I were to do my portfolio now."

"Ok, so here we have the first slide of my portfolio. My portfolio was entirely digital; I did it on Google Slides because it was something I knew how to use - it was accessible to me."

"I've just got my title 'digital portfolio', and the course and then my name. And then I've popped in the background a couple of images of a collage that I've done. I would say, if I was to do it again, it's better to go for something a little bit cleaner. It doesn't need to be too over complicated. But yeah, let's get into it."

"I included a table of contents in my portfolio. I'd say this isn't really necessary, but it was just my way of laying out what was going to be coming up."

"Here is the first project that I decided to include in my portfolio. It is important to note that most of my work in this portfolio is textiles based because I was studying a Textile A Level at the time, and then decided that I wanted to transition into a fashion design degree at university. But this is something that's quite common. So, if that's the case for you, you're studying textiles now but you want to transition into fashion design, don't stress too much about it. There are so many relevant skills that you've learned in textiles, so just showcase those in your portfolio."

"I decided to lay out my projects following a research stage and then a drawing stage, design phase and then final pieces. So what you see on this slide is just a bit of primary research and mood boarding. On this slide, I've put some drawings and collages, a bit of mixed media relating to the same project as the previous slide."

"And for this one, I just went through my sketchbook, and I was really thinking about what work I was proud of. I was really happy with these drawings at the time and it was something that I wanted to show the interviewer. So that's something to consider when you're picking work to showcase - what do you want to put forward?"

"On this slide I've shown some primary research photos that I took and then a collage that I made with them, where I applied them to a model. I wanted to show that I was considering how I could apply my research to the body and how I could apply it to garments and not just thinking about textiles.

"This slide is an example of some artist research that I've done, and the next slide is another artist research.I would say, it's good to have some artist research in there. It shows your development stage. It shows where you get your ideas from and that's something that they will want to see."

"That being said, my slides are a little bit busy with text. If I were to do it now, I'd cut back on that a little bit and just make it a little bit more visual. The next thing that I decided to include was some examples of my textiles work, including fashion visualisations where, again, I applied my work to models. I wanted to show how my work came together in a laid-out format. This slide here showcases some of my design sketches."

"And then finally, I've got my final piece for this project. I put it at the end so that chronologically, it would make sense as I went through my project. I also included one slide on digital design to show my interviewer that it was something that I was experimenting with and that I was open to other forms of creating."

"This marks the start of the second project that I decided to include. Again starting off with some drawings, some collages, mixed media, primary design, development, and then I moved on to more development turning into patterns and I've showed some textile samples that I developed for my research as well. And then here I've got the final piece for that project."

"The next thing I decided to include was just a couple of slides on various textile experiments that I've done. I didn't write too much detail on them because I wanted to talk them through in my interview but I just included some pictures just to showcase some of my favourite works that I've done in the past couple years."

"This is the final slide in my portfolio. It's not necessarily related to the other projects that I included in my portfolio but it's just a series of some fashion photography that I've done just because it was something that I really enjoyed doing. It was a personal project that I did and I just really wanted to show it off to my interviewer."

"An important thing to remember when you're building your portfolio is that everyone is going to have different types of work, so it might not look exactly like mine but it's really about going through and including different parts of your process and just including things that you want to put forward rather than trying to match other examples that you've seen. It is a personal portfolio so it's really about you."

"Ok, so to finish off, I'm just going to sum up some of the general tips that I've mentioned throughout this video. But before that, I'll also mention that on our Falmouth University website, we do have a page dedicated to portfolios so definitely go have a look there as well."

So just a sum up some of the things I've mentioned:

1. Make sure that you include a mix of development or process type work as well as final pieces.
2. Include work that you feel is a reflection of who you are as a creative individual and work that you feel comfortable talking about in your interview.
3. Seek out feedback from teachers, parents, carers. It's always nice to just have a second set of eyes.
4. Don't overthink it. It's not the end of the world if you make a small mistake. It doesn't have to be perfect. Just do your best, put in work that you care about and that's it. That's all that matters.

"Thank you guys so much for watching and I hope this was helpful for you."

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