At Matalan I had many duties, one was to carry out bench marking, here I would compare prices and quality of Matalan goods with other high street brands, this way we were able to see if our garments sat appropriately within the market. I would also send out samples to suppliers across the world to show them how we wanted our fabric to look and feel. I also helped styling the Matalan look book for males, created mood boards which depicted the different phases and collections and would attend fittings weekly, which enabled the buying team to make sure garments fitted correctly and that the quality was of the right standard. The Matalan men’s buying team also thought it would be useful if I sat in on their buying meetings to gain first hand experience. I also had the opportunity to photograph best and worst garments from the current season to see what worked and what didn’t; this would help the designer to see what aesthetics she could carry forward for the next season and what discontinue. When I joined the marketing team I was involved with the October/November mailer, in which I had to take photographs of garments and accessories that would be featured with in the advertisement. I would also e-mail the Matalan models, sending the photographs from their recent shoots. I also helped with marketing the newsletter for AENA Youth Trust, which consisted of trend writing for Autumn according to the Matalan collections.

The course consisted of:
-Fashion & the Creative Industries
-Entrepreneurship
-Idea Generation and Product Development
-Trend and Fashion Forecasting
-Branding
-Creative Event Management
-Fashion Innovation
-Creative Business Planning
-Creativity & Design
-Concept Collections
-Global Business
-Employability
-Social Media
-Starting a Business & Employability