Studying Fashion

Holly Nancarrow-Hassall would like to welcome you to BA (Hons) Fashion at University of Staffordshire. 

Holly has a strong interest in employability and emergent fashion technologies. She is currently developing the use of AI and VR within Fashion Education. Holly worked in Industry for many years before becoming an academic, working as a Pattern Cutter and Garment Technologist for many well-known high street brands such as Marks and Spencer, Next, Topshop, Tu, Dorothy Perkins and more.

Holly’s industry experience has helped her to form a strong knowledge of industry standards. Since 2011 Holly has worked as a freelance designer, pattern cutter and teacher, allowing her to share her knowledge and passion with a variety of people of varying levels. Holly’s real passion is to support students’ individual needs and interests across the sector and she continues to enjoy fusing both her passion for lecturing and entrepreneurial practices.  She is excited to welcome you to the Fashion community at Staffs and support your creativity!

Hi, my name is Ellie I am 20 years old, originally from Stoke on Trent and I am in my final year of university studying BA (Hons) Fashion.

I attended an open day for University of Staffordshire as it is close to home and I wanted to see what a university in my hometown had to offer.  The entire day everyone was so welcoming and spoke about their work and past students work with such admiration and support.  What made this University more appealing was that the fashion course didn’t just specialise in design and make they supported all areas of the fashion world and allowed their students to explore those areas and as someone who wants a future career in fashion marketing - this made me feel more supported.

When I first walked into the studio I was amazed as I had never seen a studio presented so professionally before, the thing that stood out to me the most was all of the previous students work displayed everywhere it showed to me just how meaningful the students work was to the lecturers.

This course has changed my confidence massively, before university I was incredibly shy and preferred to keep my work to myself however the lecturers and other students have always shown support towards my work which has given me the confidence to express myself more within my work. I completed a marketing brief in my second year of uni and it was the first time I had ever been assigned a brief for an actual business, this really improved my confidence as I got to show how I would market this business and this resulted in me having the opportunity to work at that business for a week.

One piece of advice I would give to future students is to try everything, the course will improve your confidence in yourself and your work so communicate with your lecturers and try everything that is offered to you.