Fashion promotion student Lucy recognised at Graduate Fashion Week
A creative Portishead student has wowed fashion industry experts after winning a national award at the prestigious annual Graduate Fashion Week in London.
Lucy Neville, a 25-year-old final year fashion promotion student from the University of Central Lancashire (UCLan) in Preston, beat off hundreds of entries from across the country to win the Fashion Communications Portfolio Award.
Graduate Fashion Week is one of the biggest events in the industry’s calendar and showcases the very best of student work from around the globe, giving a platform to the next generation of fashion designers and promoters. Lucy won for her final year body of work in which she developed concept marketing campaigns for brands such as Apple, Bumble, Black Mirror, ID Magazine and Urban Outfitters.
Judges were looking for a “well-executed, stylish, and professionally presented fashion portfolio that demonstrates individual creative identity, whilst communicating thinking process and development from the concept to final ideas.”
"I came up with the idea after researching upcoming social trends and there is a real focus at the moment on strong, independent women following the #MeToo revolution."
Former Gordano School and Sixth Form pupil Lucy said: “When I was announced as the winner I was completely lost for words and I still don’t think it’s sunk in. To make the final shortlist out of a strong list of contenders was fantastic but then to win was absolutely amazing.”
The talented student also made the final five candidates for the Graduate Fashion Week Fashion Marketing Award for her She Mighty Festival project; a would-be three-day festival in London for single, millennial women.
Lucy wanted to empower women through her festival, which would include workshops, therapy sessions, fashion shows and speakers. She developed a whole campaign around the event and had to consider everything from branding and graphic design to a social media strategy and venue details.
“It really was about the full picture and I had to think about how I would promote this festival from every angle. I came up with the idea after researching upcoming social trends and there is a real focus at the moment on strong, independent women following the #MeToo revolution.”
Lucy, who worked at Waitrose in Portishead before heading to university in 2015, was inspired to pursue a career in marketing after a chance meeting with a backpacker whilst in Australia and say she’s never looked back since.
“I got chatting to a girl who worked in marketing for the Very fashion brand and had previously studied fashion promotion at UCLan. I didn’t even know degrees like this existed so as soon as I get home I enrolled and headed to Lancashire. I wish I could find that really helpful backpacker now and thank her for sending me on this fantastic journey.”
Lucy has now had interest from a creative agency in London on the back of her Graduate Fashion Week Award and is hoping this will lead to an exciting employment opportunity. She will graduate from UCLan in July.