Our Fashion Journalism and Fashion Design and Promotion students paid a visit to Smart Works Newcastle earlier this week to meet stylists, take part in styling challenges, have some career coaching and much more.
Smart Works Newcastle is a charity that helps women who are unemployed with clothing and coaching ahead of job interviews. Smart Works operates throughout the UK and have opened 11 centres across the country over the past decade, with their Newcastle centre opening in 2018. The charity has helped over 30,000 unemployed women across the UK with their Interview Dressing and Preparation Service and one-to-one interview coaching sessions.
credit: Lucy Baker
On their arrival to Smart Works Newcastle, students were greeted by Laura Sharman, who is the Outreach Lead for the charity. Students were given a tour of the area and were introduced to their team of staff and volunteers, including stylists that help their clients create their perfect interview outfits.
STYLING AT SMART WORKS
Students took part in fun styling challenges by Smartworks stylists. They worked in small groups and each group was given a description of a hypothetical client, including their name, age, height, clothing preferences and the job they were interviewing for, to name a few. Students were given full access to the wide range of clothing they have available, including jackets, shoes and accessories like bags, jewellery, scarves etc. Once they had created the perfect ensemble for their fictional client, each group presented their interview outfits to the Smart Works team and other students. They explained their choices and why they were relevant to the brief they were given, earning nods of approval from the team.
credit: Lucy Baker
SORTING THE STOCKROOM
After completing their styling challenges, students were then moved to the stock room where they began sorting through all the new clothing that Smart Works had received through donations. They deemed which pieces were appropriate to be added to their wardrobe of clothing available to clients and anything that needed to be given to charity shops. Any articles of clothing that are a bit too worn or deemed to be too fast- fashion are donated to St Oswald’s Hospice charity shops. High-end and designer pieces were added to separate rails. These are sold at fundraising fashion events which are open to the public and an opportunity for style lovers to grab a bargain.
DESIGNER LOOKS ON A BUDGET
Some items were selected to be sold through their Vinted account, where they list many hidden gems at a fraction of their price. They currently have a pair of Dolce & Gabbana heels and items from brands like Ganni, Acne Studios, Skims and many more listed for sale on their Vinted. A recent donation was a £4,000 Balenciaga coat, which sold online for £200. Make sure you are following their Vinted account and social media to grab yourself a designer look at a steal.
CAREER COACHING
For their final activity of the day, the students sat down with Laura for some career coaching and help with their CVs. She gave the students some invaluable advice for their futures in the world of work. Students were then joined by a few members of the Smartworks team who gave an overview of their work and talked about their career paths.
The Smart Works Newcastle Centre Manager, Helen Boyd told students everything from her time studying fashion design at London College of Fashion to working in Dubai and how she went from a volunteering role in Smart Works to the Centre Manager.
Students also got the chance to hear from Head of Communications Samara Laboriel, who has been newly promoted to the role from Communications Assistant. Samara also studied at the University of Sunderland on none other than the Fashion Design and Promotion course, graduating in 2019. She told the students all about her time studying on the course and how she managed to end up working for Smart Works Newcastle, as well as her decision to study a Masters Degree in Cross-Cultural Communication and International Marketing during the Covid pandemic.
REAL-WORLD EXPERIENCE
Programme Leader of BA Hons Fashion Journalism, Liz Lamb, who runs the fashion styling module for fashion students, organised the visit to give students real-world insight into how personal styling works in the charitable sector and to further develop their styling skills.
She said: “I am passionate that fashion students gain real-world skills in styling and get out of the classroom and put their skills to the test in an industry setting. Taking part in industry briefs, such as those at Smartworks, not only gives them access to industry experience but also helps to build their confidence and employability skills.
“Smarkworks put on a fantastic session and a few students are now considering becoming volunteer stylists with the charity. It was fantastic to hear from Samara and Helen about their careers in fashion and they gave some fantastic tips for how to break into the industry such as posting their work to social media and volunteering.
“Hearing from professionals in the industry, as well as the career coaching and styling challenges, made this a valuable learning session for students.”
*If you want to see more from the Fashion Students’ visit to Smart Works, take a look at the TikTok we made taking you along with us below!
@fashion_north Come with us to @smartworksncl! #fashion #fashionstudent #smartworks ♬ positive vibes – nanaacom
SMARTWORKS VISIT
A total of 69% of Smart Works UK clients get the job within a month of their initial appointment. When clients are successful in receiving a job offer, they can then return to Smart Works, where they are once again able to browse through their vast selection of clothing offerings and select five more additional items to build up a capsule work wardrobe.
Laura Sharman, Outreach Lead at Smart Works Newcastle, said: “It’s been brilliant. It was really good for the students to show interest in coming to visit Smart Works so I think today went really well.”
We asked Laura about the possibility of any future collaborations between the university and Smart Works Newcastle and she said: “There’s absolutely a future, we’ll get involved as much as they want us to, it’s great to get more young people involved and let them know about what support that can access, even maybe not for now, but for in the future.”
SUNDERLAND FASHION SALE
Smart Works will be hosting a pop-up shopping event in Sunderland that will be open to the public. The event will be taking place at Sunderland City Hall on Thursday 26th June, be sure to keep an eye out on their socials for any updates and further information on the event so you can go along and grab yourself a steal.
The charity is also collaborating with John Lewis for their ‘Summer Styling Event’, set to take place on Thursday 22nd May between 5:30pm – 7:30pm. The event will be hosted at John Lewis Newcastle and include expert advice from a John Lewis’ personal stylist, and top summer beauty tips and secrets from Bobbi Brown. Guests will even receive a complimentary glass of fizz on arrival and a goody bag. Tickets are priced at £12, with all ticket sales in support of Smart Works Newcastle. You can purchase tickets at the link here.
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