victoria & albert museum fashion festival 2012

EMMA ZENTNER FROM BOOM NAILS SPOKE ABOUT BEING A NAIL ARTIST

WILL (PR) AND ANNA (DIGITAL MARKETING) SPOKE ABOUT CAREERS IN THE FASHION INDUSTRY

TASTER WORKSHOPS - JEWELLERY MAKING AND FASHION DESIGN

A TALK BY HYWEL DAVIES ON FASHION JOURNALISM

DESIGNER MARY KATRANTZOU IN CONVERSATION WITH SARAH MOWER FROM THE BFC

TASTER WORKSHOP - FASHION PHOTOGRAPHY

A TALK ON SETTING UP A FASHION LABEL BY IAN KETTLE

A TALK ON BECOMING A FASHION STYLIST BY ZEBA LOWE - FASHION STYLIST FOR ASOS

KRISTOFJ VON STRASS AND KELLY MARIE BURDEKIN ON VISUAL MERCHANDISING AT BEYOND RETRO

As I'm sure many of you are aware (due to my regular plugs at the end of posts & excitable tweets), I attended the Victoria and Albert Museum's annual Fashion Festival in association with the British Fashion Council last Saturday for the third year in a row. The event is always organised by the lovely girls on the Create! Voice team, who run many events at the V&A throughout the year for young people. 
The Fashion Festival is a free event geared up specifically for 16-24 year old's, and this year there was an array of amazing speakers - the names get bigger every year! You could hear industry insiders speak about careers in nail art, visual merchandising, putting on a fashion show, fashion journalism and fashion photography, as well as trying your hand at bag design, jewellery making and fashion illustration to name but a few. There was also the opportunity to chat with fashion industry moguls informally (I had a lovely natter with Alex Butt - acting Fashion Features Editor for ASOS) and get advice from Careers Advisors from the University of Kent. As you can tell there was a packed schedule; I haven't even mentioned everything!
One of my favourite talks was by Emma Zentner - founder of Boom Nails - who spoke about the new pop up Boom Nails shed in Urban Outfitters (Westfield White City), her collaboration with UO and Nail Rock, what inspires her nail art, and how her whole career whirlwind began with a modest nail art blog. 
Fashion Journalist Hywel Davies was also great, and had lots to say about the prestigious publications he has written for as a freelance journalist (Vogue.com and VogueUK, Sleazenation, Fashion Inc, ElleUK, The Independent, The Telegraph, Grazia and Nylon to name a few), how he went about publishing his four books, and the qualities he believes are necessary if you're to succeed as a fashion journalist (I was hastily taking note)!
Other highlights included seeing Mary Katrantzou in the flesh, meeting ASOS stylist Zeba Lowe (and cheekily slipping her my business card...), and listening to total kook Kristofj von Strass - Head of Visual Merchandising at Beyond Retro - talk about his work and his inspiration; I totally loved him and his vintage attire! 

So that's that - a quick round up of my day at the Fashion Fest. I really hope this post has given you all a little insight into the event, and that it has inspired some of you to attend next year. I'll definitely keep you all posted on the details when the date swings around! 

Which talks would you have loved to attend?

xoxo

P.S Sorry about the quality of some of the photos - my camera isn't great in electric lighting!

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