Context: during my MA at Central Saint Martins, I shadowed one final year designer on the MA Fashion Design course. The project started by networking with the fashion designers in order to find one to work with, leading up to their London Fashion Week show. The piece is part of the final outcome, and explores the initial stage of the collaboration.
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How to lose - and find - a designer in 10 days
When I first decided to study fashion journalism at Central Saint Martins, I didn’t think I’d get to reenact one of my favourite rom-coms of the noughties. How to lose a guy in 10 days follows journalist Andie Anderson trying to make a guy fall in love and leave her in 10 days or less, all in a bid to be allowed to write about ‘serious’ topics. Her ‘victim’, Ben, is also on a 10 day mission to make a woman fall in love with him in order to get a promotion at work. Unlike either of them, I’m not chasing a promotion. But, like Andie, I’m an aspiring journalist, and, much like Ben, I have to make a designer fall in love with me in 10 days or less.
“Some of you will not have great experiences with your shadowing project," I kept hearing on my first day at CSM. We all chose to be here, and the MA Fashion Designers we would work with all chose to take part in this - so where could it go wrong? “In so many places”, I’d answer to the me from 2 months ago. The fact that my project is going well is attributed mostly to luck - and a little dose of ghosting.
In a plot deserving of its own rom-com, read on for the ups and downs of losing, and finding, a designer in 10 days.
Day 1:
First day in, and I have to overcome any introvert’s nightmare: forming a group with people I didn’t know, where all I had was their name, email, and a slight memory of their face from the prior day. But I took the matter into my own hands, after all, what journalist will I be if I’m afraid of sending a cold email. A few rejections later, I formed my dream team with Anass from the Fashion Image pathway.
Day 2:
“It shouldn’t be too hard” I remember telling Anass, “there are twenty-two designers and seventeen groups so we will all have one”. And while I wasn’t entirely wrong I overlooked a central issue: it wasn’t just us picking a designer, they also had to choose us.
Day 3:
Our group of now three (Riah from the Theories and Histories pathway joined us the day before) had a pressing mission: speed dating our chosen designers. If I’ve learned anything from online dating, it’s that you don’t want to come across as too eager. So out of our six favourite designers we chose three to initiate contact with. “A few people have already reached out, but I am always open for a chat”, read the email from Jonathan Ferris, less than five minutes after I hit send on mine: we were on track to success it seemed.
Day 4:
Who knew I’d be spending my 25th birthday chasing designers? While Jonathan let us know the competition was fierce - he was meeting with 3 other groups - an answer from the others was yet to come.
Day 5:
There’s always a sprinkle of awkwardness on first dates, but between the unknown of the project and walking for the first time into the forbidden MA design studio, it seemed that we failed to impress Jonathan. While we loved his garments, the spark we’ve been looking for wasn’t there, a feeling he seemed to echo.
Day 6:
We’re back on the hunt, anxiously going over who else we can message, when our knight in shining armour comes to save us: Alvaro Mars, whose dramatic designs were some of the first to catch our eye, texted us back.
Day 7:
If this was a first date with a love interest, it would be the one I get all excited and tell all my friends about, while secretly planning our life together. We talked about garments, concepts and how we’d go on about this project, even made a group chat for all of us, as per Alvaro’s suggestion. I should have known better - love bombing is never a good sign. As I’ll come to find out, this will also be the one that got away.
Day 8:
It’s been a day since the date and we’re still waiting for a text back. The overthinking starts to settle in: does he like us? Did we appear too eager? Not interesting enough?
Day 9:
I’ve been ghosted before, but it never fails to bring out the worst in me: self doubt and rage. Have I learned anything from these experiences? Not really. We bump into Alvaro who apologises for not replying, and suggests we get coffee the next day - all is forgiven.
Day 10:
“This feels like a toxic relationship now”, I told project coordinator Kathrin Hake during our early morning meeting. As I should have predicted, the coffee date was never set up. I took her advice, however, and sent one last text to Alvaro - the dreaded ‘what are we’ conversation.
As I’m anxiously refreshing my phone something else catches my eye: “Gracey said she can meet us at lunch today”, texted Riah. Gracey was one of the original six designers we liked. Somewhere between the dates with Jonathan and Alvaro, we texted her and a few extra people, just in case, but none actually replied until now.
‘Love comes when you stop looking for it’ might be the worst dating advice I ever heard. But in this case, it worked.
We first met Gracey during rush hour in the canteen. Her cool and confident vibe was the first thing we noticed, and we could tell she’s not there to play or waste anyone’s time. Even if, at that moment, we didn’t know the first thing about agriculture or afrofuturism, she made us believe in her work as much as she did. And that’s the basis on which we found our perfect match for this project.