Louise: Good evening everyone, my name’s Louise Bright. I’ve worked as a sportswear designer for a big store for four years now, but I haven’t always worked in fashion. When I left school I worked as a secretary for a couple of years, and then became a bank clerk before getting a job in a travel agency. But I always dreamt about working in fashion, and I used to spend a lot of time staring out of the window and drawing clothes!
So, when I was 25, I went to college - the London School of Fashion, and did a four-year course there. You don’t learn how to actually design and make clothes until the second year - the first year is spent looking back at the fashions of the past. In the third year you work in a big store, looking at clothes made by all the famous fashion names.
I enjoyed the last year of the course most, because each student designs seven sets of clothes for the final fashion show. All the students at the school come to the final show, and you can invite other friends as well. But for me, the best thing was that my Mum and Dad could come and see what I’d done. Of course, people who are really well-known in the fashion trade often come too.
I loved the final show. The things I designed were all sports clothes. The shape of these clothes is really quite simple, so it’s sometimes hard to make them look new and interesting.
But I particularly like the materials you use because they feel soft when you’ve got them on.
I was very lucky to get work as a fashion designer as soon as I’d finished college. A few students from my course were offered work by really famous fashion designers, but I was offered permanent work by the store I’d worked for as a student, and I’m now designing a special range of clothes for the store. In fact, most of the other students on my course aren’t designing at all - they’re working in advertising for the fashion industry.
I really love my work, but I intend to have my own business in the end - I’d like to design children’s sports clothes, and sell them on the internet. I don’t expect to be fantastically successful, but if I could earn enough to live on, that would be great.