Sometimes I hate my guts for writing about a certain famous Fashion school... I wanted to debunk the middle-class myth that all you gotta do is go to the best schools and your career/ life will be sorted - very ambitious of me. So I made peace with my impostor syndrome by always disclosing I'm writing based on my personal experience; always being transparent about how much I sucked before going through it and how much I had to grow; even sharing how I could've handled things with more calm and maturity. But I still got many questions that were actually cries for attention, and that made me feel stupid for starting this - very dramatic of me. Why not use these conversations for...
I originally wrote about my experience at CSM Fashion as a mature student, meaning to help other mature students. But most of the questions I get on my YouTube channel are from you people born after the internet was a thing - which is great because you guys have no prejudices against researching online (BTW Patrick Lee Yow, course leader of Fashion Folio, once called YouTube the best university in the world. Take that with a grain of salt, of course); And not so great because having potentially all the information in the world at your reach at all times can make you feel overwhelmed, confused, frustrated... and even make you kinda lazy, when you don't know when it's time to stop researching and...
If you went through the application guidelines already, you know you have to submit a digital portfolio - with no more than 10 or 20 images, usually. The advice I received during Fashion Folio was to turn my A3 pages into PowerPoint slides as page spreads, like this: https://www.flickr.com/photos/olivia-suguri/albums/72157651147984985 This album actually has more than 20 images/slides, I might have included more pictures afterwards... but with a critical eye, you'll see I could remove at least 3 of them. * Quick video attached just in case: Portfolio playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL7hUw4Ugw4kOpV_8HZoAcxQ-DUaqvKIAR Blog posts about CSM Fashion: Fashion Folio: https://oliviasuguri.com/blogs/fashion-tech-support/mature-student-guide-csm-part-1-fashion-folio https://oliviasuguri.com/blogs/fashion-tech-support/mature-student-guide-csm-part-2-graduate-diploma Plenty of other free resources when you subscribe HERE. Need more? Book a Mentorship session with me :) I know, working...
It used to annoy the sh*****t out of me when people'd see my blog posts and videos showing my portfolio, and all they could ask was "How can I make collages?". I go through this whole trouble of researching, writing and reviewing a long-ass article; taking pictures; shooting and editing videos (that are planned and scripted btw)... and all you can ask me is how to make a collage, which is literally cutting and pasting pictures together. But then I think of my pre-CSM days, and that's always humbling enough to keep me doing what I do. In this video, I share: Why and how I started making collages; How you can use collages for Design Development; Different techniques I now use to speed...
I used to get more people asking me "How do I make a portfolio to apply to CSM?". They probably stopped because I'd never give a straightforward answer with THE SECRET. Also, why would anyone think it's that simple, since I spent a whole year + a lot of money on Fashion Folio (read about my experience here)??? But let me challenge the assumption that a good-looking portfolio is all you need: Blog bonus: some afterthoughts that came to me as I was publishing the video Pre-Fashion Folio portfolio-prep courses: Okay so you need to already have the skills before getting into any full-time courses at CSM, but I've heard of a number of people who applied to Fashion Folio, didn't get in...
