A Bit About Me
My name is Jasmine Hardisty and I'm currently in my final year at University, studying International Fashion Business.
'Jaz Magazine' was the name of a fashion photography magazine I created for my final project for A-Level Photography. This magazine featured my favourite photographs from the 12 sets I created throughout my 2 years studying Photography, and it is what has inspired me to create this Blog. My dream was to become a fashion designer, so when choosing what A-levels to study I had to cater my options to what was best for what I wanted to study at University, as my high school didn't have any fashion related options; I studied Photography, Art and Business.
From the start of my Photography course, I knew I wanted my final outcome to be a fashion magazine and I decided to focus on unconventional fashion photography, taking inspiration from fashion photographers such as Nick Knight, Tim Walker and Ellen Von Unsworth.
I couldn't have done it without my supportive mentor, Mr. Robinson-White (My photography teacher) who taught me everything I needed to know to peruse my dream. He always pushed me to learn new things and supported all of my ideas. He was my favourite teacher, as he was the most supportive and dedicated teacher I'd ever had or met.
Mr Robinson-White is now my younger sister's teacher and she has told me that creating a fashion magazine for a final piece in photography has grew more popular since I created mine; I'm grateful for inspiring others to do something different.
After Sixth Form, I got into Nottingham Trent University for Fashion Design, thanks to Robbo for helping me with my portfolio. I studied this course for 2 years and learned so many new things. I was completely new to fashion design and having people around me who had already been studying it for 3 years was intimidating, but I didn't let it affect my work. I had so many unique opportunities in those 2 years, such as collaborating with the White Rose charity to create a 90% recycled garment to donate to their charity, a zero-waste draping workshop with Cunnington & Sanderson and the chance to work with an industry brand, Universal Works, to create a A/W 24 collection with a group. I learned so much from my experiences, but an opportunity arose towards the end of my 2nd year which was to switch to the business side of the fashion industry for my final year studying and I had to make a painful decision that would shape my future career.
A lot of thought went into my decision to switch to International Fashion Business for my 3rd year and sacrificing my dream of having a degree in fashion design. The unfortunate reality is that there are not many job opportunities in fashion design, and moving to the business side was a unique opportunity.
I studied Business for A-level, so already had an idea of what fashion business would entail. I'm currently 6 weeks into my new course and I am so happy that I made the decision to change courses. I have already learned so many new things that give me an advantage when applying for jobs, as I also have 2 years experience in fashion design. Because the course is smaller in comparison to fashion design, I find there to be a lot more support with our work to be offered. Throughout the 1 year I have on this course, I am due to learn most areas of fashion business, such as buying, marketing, product development, sourcing, consumer research trend prediction, events and management processes and I'm so excited for the opportunities this course will bring to me!
Thank you for taking the time to read a bit about me. I have a few blog posts in mind of what I want to create and I am excited to start sharing posts every week!
Jasmine Hardisty X
(Last updated: 24/10/24)