In this exciting talk Holly Fulton joined us to discuss her rise to fashion fame, and the life changing opportunity TU for Sainsbury’s is offering one lucky graduate. As one of the top designers for Sainsbury’s, Holly is in charge of taking one up and coming designer onboard for a year long paid internship. The prize will also involve a visit to Holly’s fabulous studio to witness first hand how the mechanics of a design business works from of the most influential people in both high street and high-end fashion. When asked what an average day look likes in her studio, Holly says she arrives before the team and leaves after them every day in order to be completely immersed in the experience. “The 6 weeks before a show are always the most hectic, and the atmosphere is crazy in the last 2 weeks”.
For someone that was originally destined to be a vet, Holly has taken the industry by storm ever since her début at Fashion East, which led to her kick start with New Gen. “I learnt how much commitment and hard work you need to foster”, she says, “it’s not always as glamorous as it seems, you have to be prepared for that”. The support provided by these initiatives became a key component of her vast success, which guaranteed her passion for the new support program being pushed by Sainsbury’s this year. “The support gets bigger the longer you’re in business”, which she explains is the reason for the majority of the framework of her knowledge of the business and legal side of the collection.
Looking into the future Holly is excited about all the different routes she could go down, including jewelry or even home wear! Hard work has been the success story of almost every name in the industry, which means there’s no surprise that Holly’s top tip for our graduates is to “constantly persevere with the hardest work you can”.
