One Size Fits All – Cardiff and Vale College Fashion students work backstage with @therealGokWan

Level 3 Fashion students from Cardiff and Vale College recently had the opportunity to work with fashion consultant, author and TV presenter Gok Wan on his recent show in Cardiff.

The first and second year learners were given a life brief by his production company to work as runners and dressers at the ‘One Size Fits All’ show which was held recently at the Mercure Holland House in Cardiff.

Students helped style models who were wearing local and high street brands, assisted with the set-up of the main event area, prepared gift bags, helped Gok with a Q&A and welcomed guests.

Their Lecturer, Kerry Cameron, said: “The students provided excellent customer service and gained lots of valuable experience and benefits from working with Gok and the Beautiful Events and Productions team.”

Live briefs occur when an external or industry source commission students to undertake a certain task, giving them real and not realistic work experience in their chosen career.

Jessica Giltinan worked as a runner during the show. “It was really good,” the 19-year-old Fashion student from Barry said. “We all agreed that it was better than we expected and we were a lot more involved than we thought we were going to be.

“It was really, really fun and I’m glad to have been a part of it. It gave us a really good insight into what working on a fashion show is like.”

Imogen Vaughan, 16 and from Cardiff, had the role of dresser.

“It was really nice to see the promotion of different types of body image and it was great to get some experience of working behind the scenes in the fashion industry,” she said. “It was fun to learn how to dress models – Gok Wan was fun to be around and all of the models were really nice as well.

“It was really helpful as it gave me advice on how I could set up my own show further down the line.”