Unsure of which career path to take, Yasmin completed a Fine Arts diploma focusing on fashion design, which ignited her passion for styling, image-making and PR. From there, she chose our Fashion degree course offering versatile modules that would help develop her creative and analytical skills. Yasmin’s favourite part of the course was taking part in the fashion show in her final year.
After graduation, Yasmin relocated to London for internship opportunities and began assisting a freelance fashion stylist, where she gained experience of working on fashion editorials, London Fashion Week and music videos. She also took the opportunity to network with PR agencies, photographers, make-up artists and models. Yasmin then completed a six-week fashion buying internship with ShopDirect (Very.co.uk) which led to being offered an assistant buying job. Moving on, she returned to her studies and completed a postgraduate course in Fashion Buying and Merchandising at the London College of Fashion.
Yasmin applied her passion and expertise to a business plan that formed the creation of her own fashion brand, UNDER-RAPT. As Creative Director and business owner of the world’s first sustainable modest sports and athleisure brand, Yasmin has developed UNDER-RAPT into a global lifestyle brand selling in the UK, Dubai and Egypt.
Speaking about the philosophy behind her brand, Yasmin stated: “As an Egyptian British Muslim, I embrace both sides of my ethnicity. I am particularly intrigued with how fashion and lifestyles are becoming more integrated in today’s modern societies.”
Yasmin recently moved to Egypt where she has based the fully supply chain of her business and is currently working on 100% organic Egyptian cotton designs. She is also using her knowledge and experience to help students develop themselves to work in the fashion industry.
Among her many accomplishments, Yasmin and her brand, UNDER-RAPT, have been part of London Fashion Week and Dubai Modest Fashion Week. UNDER-RAPT was named ‘top five brands to know about’ in Grazia Magazine Middle-East, ‘one to watch’ in Mojeh Magazine and featured in several popular middle-eastern media channels and local UK newspapers. UNDER-RAPT was also nominated in the ‘Best Modest Brand’ category at Grazia Middle-East KSA Awards alongside Marks and Spencer and H&M. Yasmin’s designs have gained international exposure after being commissioned to showcase in San Francisco, New York, Frankfurt, Rotterdam and Doha as part of the Contemporary Muslim Fashions exhibitions.
Looking back on her UCLan experience, Yasmin said:
"I absolutely loved my time at University. Preston is a small city but that’s the beauty of it. it’s great and easy to socialise. I felt that the course guided me into recognising my career pathway.” She added: “I have UCLan to thank for my achievements."