2. The First Intervention Launch and Feedback
2.1 Overview of First Intervention
This week I produced my first intervention. For this intervention, I created an online website (https://kf28275920.jzfkw.net/) allowing independent fashion designers and graduates with fashion majors to present their designable products based on second-hand clothes and accessories. Six fashion designers and four fashion graduates were involved in this project. This website allows these graduates and new designers to mutually learn from one another, acquiring ideas and finding inspiration in fashion product design. Meanwhile, the fashion items uploaded by these independent fashion designers can also be viewed by online customers. Following this, I further invited these fashion designers and graduates to join in an interview (conducted both online and offline where appropriate). All participants have also been invited for the following interview, in which they will be asked about their experiences and opinions of this online channel and the opportunity it has provided for them to gain transferable skills.
I have provided screenshots of the website created by myself. Shown in Figure 2.1.1 – Figure 2.1.9 are the logo for this website; the search bar; photos of participants (i.e., six fashion designers and four fashion graduates); and these participants’ fashion outfits and fashion products.
Figure 2.1.1– 2.1.9
2.2 Stakeholders and Participants in the First Intervention
Initially, I invited a total of nineteen fashion designers and graduates to take part in my project. However, only ten fashion designers and graduates agreed to join this study and post their fashion products and style images on my website. The ten participants consisted of six fashion designers and four fashion graduates. The ten participants in the first intervention had various degrees of professional knowledge and experience in womenswear, sportswear, fashion photography, fashion styling, fashion media and the production of fashion shows.
2.2.1 Why Attend?
To understand how these participants would attend this project, I also developed an online questionnaire to gain further information about them. As is shown in the following questionnaire results, all of the participants had the times stressed their future careers after graduation. They were also all interested in finding new opportunities by developing transferable skills. For professional reasons, these participants all expressed a significant interest in fashion.
Figure 2.2.1.—2.2.3.
Note: The answers are based on the initial nineteen participants.
2.3 The Group Division for Participants and Their Individual Contexts
I divided the ten participants into five groups. Each participant was invited to design at least six matching outfits, and six matching outfits were photographed according to the group with each other. Each of these six matching outfits will be uploaded to my website.
Group 1 (One Fashion Womenswear Graduate)
Maggie, a fashion womenswear graduate from the London College of Fashion, had a mysterious style in her work. She submitted photos of worn outfits that displayed a strong sense of brokenness.
Group 2 (One Fashion Stylist Graduate, and One Fashion Womenswear Graduate)
Ru, a fashion stylist, was a graduate from the London College of Fashion, whilst Chai was a fashion womenswear graduate. They took six separate sets of commercial photographs of each other’s fashion items for the website, preferring a ‘girl-next-door’ style with the occasional sexy twist. Because of their versatility, each of their unused clothes may appeal to a wide audience.
Group 3 (Three Fashion Design Graduates)
Three friends from Kingston University, Nai, Yuki and Molly, all of whom had graduated in fashion design, presented six fashion items to be photographed. Each item belonged to the post-00s trends in fashion, and because of their versatile style, each one also appealed to a wide audience.
Group 4 (One Fashion Media Graduate, and One Fashion Management Graduate)
Dongshan and Sky were a couple from the London College of Fashion, having studied Fashion Media and Fashion Management respectively, and their preferred style was comfortable and relaxed. They uploaded photos of both jewellery and clothes for this project.
Group 5 (One Fashion Sportswear Graduate, and One Fashion Performance Graduate)
JI was a former fashion model now working as a brand agent for vapes, which he was hoping to sell on this website as a new-age fashion product. Hichen had graduated from the London College of Fashion with a degree in Fashion and Sportswear, and had a preferred style for streetwear and sportswear. In his photos, Hichen uploaded vintage clothes with designs that I had hand-sewn myself. Hichen allowed JI to model for the shoot.
2.4 Platform and Medium Selection
2.4.1 Online Website as Platform
For the website design (as is shown in section 2.4.1), I designed the homepage section of this website with a photo of a baroque pearl, representing the fashion graduates who have something special and shining about each one of them. The slogan presented on the website (shown at the top of Figure 2.4.1) hopes to inspire fashion graduates to create a future through the abilities and opportunities they have now. If online users scroll down the website, they will encounter the avatars of each of the ten participants involved. Customers can then check the ten fashion designers’ and graduates’ products and style images by interacting with the avatar index.
Figure 2.4.1 Overview of My Fashion Website
2.4.2 The Advantages of Using This Platform
The fashion website may be said to have the following three advantages:
1. The essential feature of this online platform is that, by uploading photos demonstrating the unique style of fashion creators (i.e., fashion designers and graduates), complete with the author’s name, information, a description of the work’s concept, and a comment section, fashion creators may receive comments from other creators, and can also comment on other fashion creators’ photos. In turn, this may then improve fashion creators’ knowledge and skills in fashion, dressing, photography, fashion awareness, and website creation. These skills will not only help the individual in terms of finding their early career paths, but can also be built upon later in their lives. These experiences will also give fashion creators a clear idea of what they want to do in the future.
2. The website can also be viewed by other consumers, and consumers can pre-order items that they like or give reviews of designs. These comments from consumers, in combination with the feedback provided by other fashion designers, are important transferable skills and can be a great help when it comes to future career paths. For example, consumer feedback can help fashion creators to understand how my product will respond to consumer tastes. The transferable skills provided by the feedback of other fashion designers are mainly reflected in the collision of fashion ideas, which subsequently generates new ideas. The comments may also allow fashion creators to reflect on their own work and improve their skills. The feedback from consumers, as well as from other fashion creators, will have a significant impact on these young fashion creators in their future careers.
3. This website is very personal in its approach, and provides fashion graduates with enough autonomy to pursue their own projects. This approach allows designers to use their autonomous initiative and imagination to express their unique style through the form of photography. These styles can be innovated upon through the transferable skills acquired, and new transferable skills can be acquired through the process of constant repetition. Other transferable skills can also be learned through mutual commentary with others. An additional channel of communication with fashionistas in the fashion field may help to overcome the uncertainty of such early careers.
2.5 Intention and Goal
The first intervention sought to investigate how fashion graduates might gain transferable skills more efficiently through online forums or websites.
2.6 Activity and Event allowing Users to Engage
The first intervention developed two activities for participants to engage with. Firstly, these 10 participants uploaded their images and fashion products on the website, where they could learn from each other and gain transferable skills in the process. After posting images on the website, they were asked to comment on other people’s products and follow each other’s products, allowing them to communicate with others whilst looking for a career.
Secondly, I invited them to an online interview lasting a little over ten minutes. I sought help from an expert in fashion management to design the following open-ended questions to be asked in these face-to-face interviews:
- How do you rate the website?
- Do you think this online website will allow you to gain new transfer skills or allow you to improve your skills?
- If you were able to gain or improve your skills, what kind of improvements were made? What activities or aspects of the website enabled these improvements?
- How do you think this approach has helped or hindered you?
- Do you believe this approach has helped you to find a job for the future? If so, why do you think it will help you find a job in the future, and how can you face the pressure of finding an early career with these skills?