Why your time at university is crucial: an insight into the fashion industry

We caught up with another one of our success stories, Kiera Liberati, during our School of Art, Design and Fashion ‘Industry Week’. Since her graduation four years ago, she has worked her way up to fashion director for Notion Magazine and is a freelance fashion stylist. How did her time at Solent help her, and why were those three years so essential? Kiera, who studied Fashion Styling with Hair and Makeup opens up and shares some of her wisdom with our current students.

“A lot of people I went to uni with loved the parties and went out every night. That’s cool, but I’m more of a focused person and while I partied for a bit, I wanted to make sure that by doing my course I was going to get the most out of it. I love my mum and I wanted to make her proud,” she says.

“Solent gave me the confidence to start my journey to my dream career. If I didn’t go to uni, I might not have interned as I was clueless about why it is so important. Uni can only teach you so much; for example, for styling they show you what goes around in a shoot, but not how it plays out on the day. It’s up to you to get that experience. I would say that you need to go to uni to know how to intern, and how to start standing on your two feet. It’s the perfect stepping stone into real life in my opinion.”

Events like Industry Week are here to highlight the fact that everyone has a chance to have a career doing what they love. Students need to make the most out of the resources that are offered and start adding contacts - every person walking our corridors might be the next big thing.

“It’s so important to connect with people. While I was studying I was already introduced to so many fellow students and creatives!” says Kiera.

“Keep in touch, use your resources and read everything as much as you can. University gives you all that. I was reading all the magazines for inspiration and learning so much that way.

“I do regret not taking more interest in writing and Photoshop though. If I was to do it again, I would try harder at those instead of gravitating only towards things I liked doing.”

Kiera’s final words to anyone who wants to brave the fashion industry: “Never ever give up. Every time you’re about to give up something good is about to happen.”