Digital Fashion Dialogues event completes a successful term for fashion students

MBA International Fashion Management and MSc International Fashion Marketing students successfully organised and hosted a Digital Fashion Dialogues event attended by industry experts.

The aim of the event was to bring entrepreneurs and digital creatives from the fashion industry in conversation with London Campus fashion students. The event consisted of an afternoon of 'speed-dating'/'cafe-style' conversation and also included a panel discussion by four leading experts who focussed on key challenges and opportunities of developing an optimised fashion business and career.

The postgraduate students worked as a team to create marketing materials to advertise the event, promoted the event through social media channels, organised the facilities and logistics of the ecent, contact the industry experts directly and gained sponsorship from Chang Beer, Vital, and CanOWater.

Industry speakers at the event included Ash Alibhai of EyeTrend, freelance writer and former Vogue editor Jessica Bumpus, Editor-in-Chief of Accent magazine Lydia Garnett, fashion entrepreneur and shoe designer Giovanna Bettini, and Frederick Willems, former Head of Design at Thomas Pink.

The event was well attended and guests were highly praiseworthy of the student team and their professional skills in hosting the event.

The conference completed what had already been a busy and exciting term for all fashion students as they gained industry experience through a range of fieldtrips. Students had the opportunity to enjoy a guided tour of Savile Row Tailors, visit Brighton and Nottingham for trend research and gain industry insight by visiting trend forecasting bureau Mode International Ltd. Some students were in attendance at the LS: N Global Trend Briefing whilst MBA students visited Westfield shopping centre for retail analysis and buyer behaviour insights.

In addition, a series of industry guest speakers visited the London Campus to campus to talk about critical issues in the fashion industry surrounding Sustainability and Ethical Fashion. Dr Carmen Hijosa, CEO and Founder of Ananas Anam, gave an interesting insight into her work in establishing Pinatex as the one of the world’s leading leather alternatives whilst Diana Auria Founder/ Manager & Creative Director of Auria Swimwear gave an inspiring talk on her journey from London College of Fashion graduate to successful entrepreneur.

A student said of Diana’s talk:

“The talk this evening was extremely inspirational and has really given me a new perspective on my career in fashion and marketing”.

And finally as a pre-Christmas treat students heard from Victoria Lovelock, Production Manager at Top Shop Unique, about the contemporary challenges found in running a highly successful fashion brand and producing fashion collections in a global context – from working with factories in China, to putting on catwalk shows at London Fashion Week.