Interview with Faith Gwasira

As I reveal my experience with Olivia Black, I decide to have an interview with my colleague Faith Gwasira to have different view of point during the experience by working together.  Faith Gwasira is a 3rd year fashion and textiles student, her internship with Olivia Black gains new skills. As I sat down with her to discuss her journey, no matter how many challenges she went through, she continues with astute look and encouragement along the way. She found out that Olivia was looking for interns through a friend of her and decided to work with her because as designer who is aiming on sustainability and genderless it met on her criteria when Faith will have her own brand in future.  

Faith is working full time, and she is not only help us with pattern blocks and sewing, but she also works into various field such as:  administration, PR, social media content and reaching people for collaborations. However, she mentioned through her journey she felt some pressure for doing task’s correctly as is someone else’s design and does not like to waste time.  Therefore, she crushed by building confidence into her skills. Moreover, Faith explains by working with me she found a supportive environment were working in a team and problem-solving are important. By working with me, she understands she will be a good leader inside a team and able to work on her communication skills as Faith gives guidance to myself when I found challenges. In additionally, she mentioned by working together we be able to help each other and even on days where I came for 1-2 hours. 

Furthermore, she mentions me that she develops the skills into sizing pattern to a bigger size, adjusting garments to fit in both male and female measurements, draping garments with pattern paper before to move into the fabric, handling customer’s order, social media management and collaboration by outreach sourcing, networking and business maintenance. I asked her if she has favourite moments of us working together and she told me it was during the photoshoot. Thank for my videos and few pictures she manages to work on it for post it on Olivia Black’s Instagram profile.  

Faith explains me that is a person who work by taking her time, produce her works once in a year and thank for this internship she grasps her design skills. Faith told me when it comes to takes decision in a short time is not where she exceed the most. Faith learned on how to be more aware when it come on using fabrics and patterns paper when the brand is a small business and there are challenges in financial fields.  

As Faith’s journey comes to an end, is very clear that working with Olivia Black has been a growth and self-discovery. By sizing pattern blocks to leadership skills, Faith gains more confidence and clarity of what she would like to do after university. With each challenge that she overcome Faith understands the realisation of her making a statement inside the fashion industry.  

Behind the scene of photoshoots

During my experience in the internship, I assist two photoshoots which I really enjoy the most. The first photoshoot I had the opportunity to work with Olivia and collaborate with professionals team, meanwhile, the second one was with Faith and the model.

In the first photoshoot my role was an assistant which I organise outfits, change the paper's roll for the background of the shoots and make sure that garments were neats.

However, the second shoot we did not had the photographer and make up artist so me and Faith had various roles. Whilst Faith was taking pictures and direct the shoot I was filming videos for social media and styling the model for each look. We had to work only for two looks and a remarkable moment happened when I was styling the dress for second look. I recognise I had repressed how the two straps were supposed to tightened, I decide in that moment to go out the scheme and play around to create a good look. When Olivia saw the pictures she pointed out the error and also she mentioned that she liked the looks of the dress.

In conclusion, with this experience was a good turning point for myself, as I enjoy so much I realise in future I would like to work more as fashion stylist. With this role you have the opportunity to play around with clothes, colours, work with the model and shows the garment in various styles and deliver different looks for consumers of the product.

Making pattern blocks and toiles

During my internship my colleague and I created pattern blocks for Olivia Black's new collection. We drafted blocks of basic shirts ,bodices and dresses which we made alternations by meeting the design of the garment. After weeks working on pattern block we finalise and started to created toiles made with calico. By making the toile you can understand more how the garment need to be structure from 2D into 3D.

In my experience, I learned from my colleague Faith rather than from the designer. While I making patterns and toiles, there were some moments when I found some challenges or did not understand some concepts and most of the time Faith was there to help me. Sometimes, even Faith was not certain and we had to contact Olivia for her support through the phone. Therefore, Olivia occasionally came for short periods, like 2-3 hours checking our work and giving us feedbacks for the patterns and toiles but most of the time it was just Faith and I.

I am thankful for Faith's presence, considering that pattern cutting and sewing are not where I exceed . I had various questions and uncertainties but Faith was there to help me, however, I was expected to have more opportunities to work with Olivia more closely to learn extra. Moreover, in part I think I did not had the opportunity to work with her as I was only going for 2 days as I had to do my internship while I was attend university. In conclusion, I have gain various skills especially in pattern cutting which boost my confidence in compare to where I was before.