Black Market UK Talk - LCF Alumni

If you are new to my page and do not follow my Twitter and Instagram socials, you wouldn't know that late last year I put on an event named Black Market UK - Christmas special. 

It all started from the idea I had around how black owned businesses — which I am familiar with consuming — in the UK are going to market their products during the Christmas season.

The Voice Newspaper, Wray & Nephew and Supermalt were our official sponsors as well as Unorthodox EU.

It was a wonderful experience where I was able to engage with my community of creative UK black entrepreneurs in s physical space in one of the hotspot market areas European. 

Nowadays, @blackmarket_uk are solely based online, I am waiting to release a few projects and attain a team to help regulate more seasonal markets, so be sure to keep your eyes out for 2018 Christmas ^_^.

Now, I was pleased to talk about my experience around marketplace developing and my goals for @blackmarket_uk with the 2nd years of my degree course (BA Fashion PR & Communication) at my Lime Grove campus last week Thursday. I was invited to talk about my experience and listen to a project which the 2nd years are undertaking with a well-known marketplace area within London. It was a thrilling experience to stand up in front of one of my lecturers regarding my experience of events and PR during and after uni. To think I use to be terrified of speaking in public and now I’m so use to doing it, it feels like nothing !

Why study at LCF ?

Happy June !

If you are not subscribed to my YouTube channel, there is a new video about my university, London College of Fashion up ^_^. 

Depending on how you look at it (in terms of 'wow that's so early' / 'cool you were serious from early ') , I knew from around the age of 15 that I would go to study at LCF, I loved fashion and the concept of journalism and the world of conversation. I don’t remember being heavily immersed in idolising it or looking at the atmosphere that is famously surrounding it. Not until I actually started applying for college did I look a my GCSE results and compared them to my A Level choices to tally up what would make sense in choosing my degree for the next 3 years.

UAL, the umbrella that London College of Fashion stands under is a fascinating universe to affiliate yourself with as a young creative individual who would like to build upon skills and venture into the world of the arts in a business like manner. However, as most people would ideally like to turn their hobby/passion into a dream business !

Also, a very interesting thing to share from the Business of Fashion:

click the picture to follow the link

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Life After Graduation

What inspired me to write this post was from an email I received towards the end of university. 

At the end of the academic year, LCF put on a Careers day where industry experts come along and many activities/ talks/ discussion occur throughout the day. One thing that baffled me was reading something along the lines of:

Life after graduation? Does that thought scare you? …….

At first I was like, why should I or anyone be scared? I mean, we all knew this day was going to come sooner or later. I remember overhearing a few people who were in fact very scared about their future, some hadn’t even considered thinking past their hand-in, let alone sorting to create a cover letter, network as well as look at possibilities i.e - straight into work / graduate scheme / travelling or even MA.  

That leading question; "Does that thought scare you?", somehow did get the best of me, I remember thinking like - "I have a plan, and some considerations - wait have I forgotten something? "

7 months after my graduation ceremony (to the date) , I'm currently working part-time in retail and either interning during the week for a set amount of time or freelancing / gaining some inspiration / living life in general :).

Reflecting on the last part of my thoughts, the thing I had forgotten was; sometimes in life, plans don't go 'so well'. Initially, I blamed myself. I thought maybe that I didn't have a strong enough portfolio, or not enough experience or even I'm just looking in the wrong places. 

Wrong .                       

We live in a world where the traditional methods of success are rare; as soon as you finish university you automatically get that 'dream job'. To the point where graduates are now either interning for less than NMW and settling; hoping to climb up within 3 years. That sometimes works but what if it doesn't? This is what scared me, settling. During these 7 months, I've learnt a whole new meaning of value. This gave me a boost in compromising my time, knowledge and efforts when it comes to investing myself within anything, be it a company or project I may be contracted to do.

I feel the graduates today are the most overqualified, experienced generation that will mostly be underpaid in their true worth, but I see a rise in entrepreneurship #GirlBoss ^_^

A little cousin of mine is about to finish the #universitylife and asked me how to prepare for work after university. I said (literally)

Two things, though you can never be prepared, you should make some certain preparations for aspects of the working world. For example; 

• Saving - That student finance won't be here forever, you should have something available for a rainy day
• An edited and updated cover letter and resume - What I love about LCF is their Careers and Employability services, they have (and in general most universities) a wide range of contacts as well as advice on how to have the best possible resume ever !

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Proverbs 3:5 Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.

Philippians 4:6 Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.

Trusting in God to lead me in making the right decisions within my university life (before and I believe after). I've become bold (-er) in the decisions I make. Also, understanding that through Him, all things are possible made me more confident to desire avenues / accomplishments which I felt some of my teachers/tutor did not necessarily encourage me to go after or to even knock on the unknown door.

For example: My biggest testimony to date: My overseas internship in New York City. I was told I shouldn’t dare apply because of my background, but with God on my side, Not only was I able to save and pay fully for my own internship but also survive after 18+ months of unemployment. I tell you it’s a joy to decide when you want to leave the world of retail and decide when to come back, if you want to come back.

I guess what I’m trying to get out really is, plan. I was blessed enough to have a plan before going into university, stick to the majority of it ( with planning, you have to consider the possibility of contingency) and got the results I wanted.

As for the 9-5 dream job path though - it'll come. I feel that because God knows I'm a perfectionist and he's just making sure that place is perfectly right for me as well as them ^_^

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Memory Lane - Words & Pictures || OOTD

This month is due to hold a load of exciting tasks and memories to last a while ! Starting already from Monday, I was at uni for the past 5 days being a student ambassador, assisting the lecturers at the LCF Words & Pictures summer school.

It was such an exciting opportunity, I had previously gone to the same summer school programme back when I was 17 years old, and it was so great to be on the other side watching these students striving to learn about their potential future careers. I had also worked with a cool guy called Josh, who was a recent graduate from LCF studying Journalism (be on the watch out for him, he'll be launching his magazine real soon). It was amazing for myself to learn more stuff from his complete journey at LCF, as I've just moved onto my second year (did I mention I passed 1st with a reallllly good grade ^_^ )

Monday's OOTD
Blouse- Zara
Jeggings- Topshop
Sandals- Primark

It was such a lovely experience ! I tried my hardest to be so proactive in all tasks and give sufficient answers to their questions about the uni, my degree, the expectations etc ... and now I whilst I write this post, I am able to realise how much I have achieved within these two years alone !

As happy as I am to have experienced this, I am too - tired . I think I've had about 12 hours sleep collectively this week alone, I have so much work to do (But I still love it lol) ! And I haven't been too well, hopefully I will upload the rest of the weeks OOTD's

For more about my experience of Words & Pictures, just follow the link

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Open Day ... @LCF

So yeah, Clara and I attended the LCF open day @ Lime Grove (in Shepherds Bush) and as today was a sunny day, with few clouds in the sky and I had a camera, why not take pictures of my beauty (Clara , not me - LOL)

So here you go :

 

I present to you ... Miss Clara- Louise
Don't she just suit the surroundings of the Lime Grove site?

  

Watch out for her in the future for fashion guys, this UAL student is here to make a STAMP on the creative lifestyle side of our world ;)

Unlike the fabulous fashionista, i kept my attire VERY simple today because I just felt like plain Jane ^_^

 

Bag - River Island
Jeggings- H&M
Peach Kimono - Forever 21

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The Life Of A LCF Summer School Student !!!!

Yurp, this is how it all started ....

... on the 10th of June, I enter my home to pick up the normal mail for mummy, not noticing the 1ST CLASS letter with my name on it .... from LCF .... OMG done my lil two-step (hurt my foot, called my mum and went crazy loool)

I GOT INTO LCF SUMMER SCHOOL!

 - and before I forget, I would love to thank my home girl Clara-Louise *mwah*

Then the countdown started, and I would say that the nerves kicked in (you know, like what to wear , how to act , what to expect)

then before you know it .... the day came !!!

11th July, woke up at 7, got ready and listened to choice fm, headed out w/ my toast and hot chocolate to east-dulwich train station to wait for my journey to start. Before i knew it, i was in Shepherd Bush tube station, walking to lime grove and tweeting at the same time, thinking about how excited i was to start my new week. And guess what pops up on twitter afterwards?!

LCFLondon TWEETED ME !!!

^_^ (I'm a top nerd btw- sorry, I was excited dude)

So my first day was all about fashion media, we had a lil ice breaker , found out some interesting facts about the people i would be spending my week with. I even found out that there were 2 other students from my college AND i had never seen them before ... quiet funny actually ... after lunch we were introduced to 'news and feature writing'

I wont bore you with the content of the whole week, just the really exciting parts ;)

• On Wednesday, we had our on-screen interviews ... My group was w/ crazy people named Jasmine, Anthony, Ernela and Rianah. Soon after that was finished, we went to westfield shopping centre to interview people about a rumour which we had heard about topshop opening a tattoo parlour in their flagship store. My group got kicked out unfortunately loool, but it was still fun :D
• On Thursday we went into the computer suite and got to use MAC's :D. The day felt like living the life of a journalist in the office and meeting deadlines.... I managed it and enjoyed it at the same time :)

I would love to show the world the whole video BUT, as it is set to private on vimeo, i recorded just a lil extract of what my group had done in the on-screen video. I do apologise for the poor quality.

From left to right - Ernela, Jasmine (the GREAT) Rianah and Anthony

And then before you knew it !!!! The Week came to an end :'( 

After our certificates

Words & Pictures Class of 2011

My fellow Ernela ;)

And the Start Of A NEW Stalking Relationship at college
Get ready to feast your eyes on this !!

 Thanks to Michelle , Josephine , Anthony, Andy, Declan and Kate and the other members of LCF that made this experience GREAT for everyone ^_^

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