Lucy Tudhope – HND Fashion Case Study

Name: Lucy Tudhope

Course Name: HND Fashion Case Study

Course Type: Higher Education

Image caption: NWSLC female alumni student HND Fashion Lucy Tudhope
I graduated from Walsall in 2017 with a 2.2, just missing out on a 2.1. Straight after graduation, I had an interview for a Designer role at Next, but I missed out on the role due to lack of experience. Soon after that, another opportunity arose and I have been working as a designer in Leicester for just over a year now at a company who is the main supplier for PrettyLittleThing.

We also work with Boohoo and I Saw It First. Our office and factory are both based in Leicester and we work with Leicester and Birmingham based fabric companies, using locally knitted jersey fabrics and some imported fabrics too. I handle the supplier accounts and work closely with PrettyLittleThing, I Saw It First and Boohoo buyers to develop styles which often have a 4-week lead time from the initial sample to bulk delivery, which is then on their websites within a couple of days!

We regularly go to Manchester for meetings at PrettyLittleThing head office to show the buyers our latest range of samples and fabrics which is great fun. I am really enjoying my job and definitely wouldn’t be where I am now without the HND course and your continued support even when I was on my final year in Walsall.

A lot of the skills I learnt whilst on HND Fashion and Textiles at NWSLC have proved very useful in my work as at the beginning I also used to do pattern cutting so I had to call upon a lot of my pattern cutting knowledge. Also, the skills I learnt regarding fabrics, garment construction and garment costing come into use daily enabling me to create and develop designs which will be cost effective and viable for us to manufacture at a low enough price point to be workable for the companies we supply.