Fashion Journalism - 5 biggest myths

LCF's Lime Grove campus in all of its glory 

Let's face it: I'm studying at a university that is world-renowned for teaching FASHION. When someone asks me what I study, the reactions are always pretty much the same:

1. OOOHHH!!! My friend tried to get there!
2. So your campus is at Oxford Circus, how cool! (no, it's not)
3. So, fashion, huh? (in case you didn't know, there is a second word in the name of my course as well and it says "journalism")
4. I bet you dream to work for Vogue one day, don't you?

It's my last year at LCF and with about six months of my education left I feel like I got to know this school pretty well. There have been good times, there have been slightly worse but I can honestly say I do not regret the decision I've made couple of years ago - to follow my dreams despite of what others may say, to get out of my comfort zone and try something completely new. And, frankly, I can't imagine studying fashion journalism anywhere else now and I am pretty proud of myself. I achieved quite a lot for a non-native speaker that didn't know a single thing about living on their own.


But enough about me. Let's leave alone the X-factor-like application process for today, let's leave all the "do you think I may have a chance to get in?" questions. Let's talk about fashion journalism and myths. 5 biggest myths people believe in actually.

Fashion Filth Glamour 

1. "STUDYING FASHION JOURNALISM IS GLAMOROUS"

Terribly sorry to disappoint you - it's not. We don't learn about designers and clothes and we don't watch fashion shows. There are teeline classes. Well, it's an art university after all so you may feel slightly more glamourous from time to time but we are here to learn (or to pretend that we do) and we pay for it.

2. "FASHION IS WHAT EVERYONE IS INTERESTED IN"

Here are some examples of what I worked on during my academic career:
1. An investigative documentary on part-time sales advisors that can't get home for Christmas.
2. A trend report analysing the future of relationships.
3. An essay analysing how do Polish romantic comedies mimic American ones.
4. A project proposal on a 10-minute-long documentary on street food.

For my cultural studies option, I've chosen moving images. My Final Major Project is on fitness. FITNESS. And no one really cares about the fashiony bits anymore (oh, of course there are people that do, you know what I mean). Why? Because fashion is lifestyle, lifestyle is fashion, fashion is not just clothes. Easy.

Still, if you want to focus all of your work on high fashion you can. Simple as that.

3. "THERE IS NOT A LOT OF WORK, COME ON, IT'S A FASHION COURSE"

I'm a month in this year and I've already cried twice and had a PROPER mental breakdown. My boyfriend and my flatmate both study engineering and they are sometimes really surprised by the amount of work I have to do.
To be fair, I haven't had an exam in the last two years but working on a project means you need to organise your time like a pro and depend, mostly, on yourself.
And there are academic essays, oh there are. And there is a dissertation on the horizon. Help me god.

4. "EVERYONE IS MEAN AND TALKS ABOUT CLOTHES ALL THE TIME"

I touched this subject a little bit while talking about eating disorders but let me say that one more time: no one cares. Of course, there is gossip, of course some people don't like each other and of course if you wear a new dress to school you get compliments but I have this feeling sometimes that I used to care a lot more about what I wear to school when in a secondary school back in Poland. Seriously, that WAS something.
And I met some of the greatest people while studying that now I can't imagine my life without.

5. "ALL I CAN DO AFTER GRADUATING IS WORK FOR VOGUE" 

Seriously?

The Lime Grove cat. I love it so much I want to eat it every time I see it.

Pictures are not mine. Sorry.

The Shiny Shoes Post

It's 8am, I haven't even properly started my day yet and I am feeling exhausted. In the last week, I had to go through the horror of having a topic for your final major project accepted. And then my computer broke down. Yes, there was a lot of tears. There was a lot of panic. There was a lot of "I-can't-breath-I'm-feeling-like-I-was-a-character-on-Girls". Anyway, I'm having another tutorial today and judging by recent e-mails from my tutor (I swear they are haikus) this time, it's going to be accepted.
Yes, you guessed it.
Yes, I'm not writing this post to show you my new shoes (by the way, how cute they are? I had to fight ASOS on Twitter to finally get my hands on them), I'm asking for your help.
If you are a 23+ woman please drop me an e-mail at dagmarareczka@gmail.com. I don't care if you are from Poland, The UK or Kenia. I just need to ask you for YOUR opinion because, after all, it's all that matters. Sadly I can't offer that much in return - coffee? Chocolate? Free London tours? In the meantime, here's my tired face:

Working on dissertation (part 1)

Last week, I modelled for a high-street clothing chain's ad. Yeah, for money. Yeah, I don't care how ridiculous that sounds and yeah I AM SCARED to see the pictures. In the meantime. Dagmara's working on her dissertation and final major project. Part 1:

And oh! During the photoshoot (not this one, the professional one), everyone loved my Zara brogues I bought for 20 quid on sale. FASHHH. 

As Posh as The Queen's Club

Living almost doors to doors with an extremely posh world famous tennis club (see pictures for reference) full of people you meet in your nightmares finally inspired me to bring this little lovely outfit together, yay, tennis, yay sets and games!
Yeah sure - I steal this polo from my boyfriend all the time only because it's the cutest one I've seen in my life, I was at fashion week shows wearing it, because why not, and the only thing I want to say right now is thank you ebay bargains and thank you oh Konrad's ebay bidding skills.
Ok, actually, ACTUALLY, there is a couple more things. My hard work finally paid off (paid in literal sense as well) - so much is happening right now I can barely believe it.
So, firstly, .Cent - I love .Cent but sadly it's the time to say goodbye to their Bermondsey office. With school and so many other responsibilities I simply can't physically be there. Well, there are still some of my articles waiting in the queue to be published there so make sure you check .Cent's website!
Secondly, thanks to my .Cent work (I've always thought that opportunities like that are for famous bloggers only.  See, I got something not because of my blog, because of my WORK) I got hired as Gola's brand ambassador which is kind of cool because Gola as a brand is going through so many changes right now and it's becoming, errrm, cool (ohh repetition) AND I'll get to discover young British talents for them and write articles.
And lastly (because no one wants to hear about my REAL job, right?) as I said in the last post, I got scouted to take part in something really really exciting but I'm worried is this "keep your mouth shout until it goes live" kind of thing so will have to keep it to myself, EVERYONE'S DISAPPOINTED, right?

Enough talk. Enough, Dagmara. Piccies now:

J stands for jeans

18-year-old me would laugh but here I am - wearing JEANS and feeling pretty badass about it, even when they are the cheapest Zara ones still having some unwashable food and coffee stains all over them. Maybe I'm just getting old (OR BECOMING EVEN LESS COOL AND HIP) but recently trousers became my wardrobe staple and I've been wearing them nearly 7days a week since returning to London. Boring? - yes, predictable? - yes, comfortable? - HELL YES.

Well, to be fair and somehow make up for this level of un-coolness, these photos were taken in East London and shortly after making all of those seductive poses in front of a camera, I've got scouted for a one BIG and exciting project I can't tell you (yet) about so maybe hope's not lost still.


 Oh and just for the record - yes it's fashion week and yes all of my friends' twitter feeds are exploding with all the catwalk news but after two days of sorting all the invitations in the office, I'm taking a small break from being excited about it so I can be excited about it in the future, I may go to couple of shows on the last two days though, to keep my fashion self content and satisfied.