Selling my work and preparing my portfolio
Through the making of both my online and physical
portfolio, I have had to consider carefully my target audience/ career path.
Evidently, I need my portfolio to display that my work is for a fashion-based
context, in order to gain me a position within a fashion house with a role such as textile
designer. Realistically, I am aware that these kinds of positions are very rare, as very few fashion brands create their own fabrics
themselves. Because of this, I have also considered the idea of showing my work
at trade shows such as Premiere Vision. This would involve designing and making fabric
samples, which would be chosen and purchased by designers. Most woven designers
work similarly to this; examples of these designers are Bonnie Kirkwood, Dash
& Miller, Mr. Grieves Originals and Wallace Sewell. After building several
good collections of fabrics each season for similar designers, it would then be
possible to make permanent contacts with them and invite their agents to visit
in a more personal environment.
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| Premiere Vision and London Textile Fair |
Another way I have considered selling my work is through
an agency. I believe that as an emerging designer, it would be useful to use an
agent for a starting point; at the beginning it would be difficult to travel
internationally to sell work. An agent would be
able to take care of showing your work internationally, taking a percentage cut
of the selling price. Additionally, another point I need to consider is that
woven designs generally sell for £400.00 upwards. As my designs are currently
made of silk, very colourful and intricate, it may be harder to sell them due
to a smaller demand. But also, they would hold a higher price tag due to the
length of time they would take to produce. I need to consider all of these
factors and be able to produce a range of samples and diversify my portfolio in
order to make the most profit from my work.
In order to show my work to the best of my ability, I
have drawn upon elements from my two most exciting collections, ‘Silk Wovens’
or ‘Collection Two’ from the Practice unit, and my recent ‘Jewelled Couture’
collection. I intend to make 4 larger samples combining the metallic jewelled
elements with the colourful chaos of my silk designs. I am altering the size of
my samples to draw people in during New Designers and our MSA Degree Show. I
have also begun designing business cards to display next to my work, and have
started making an easily readable professional booklet to allow
visitors/potential clients to look through my work quickly before looking
through my portfolio.
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| Initial business card ideas. These need to be finalised, and when I have decided on my domain name I will put my website and my contact details on the front. |
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