Intensive week at NABA

So I've been in Milan for just over a week now, unfortunately we do not have internet in our apartment and so this post is being written in NABA the school that I am attending. This is just a brief overview of what my first week at University here has been like but I intend to blog monthly in order to keep some sort of method to my writing so an October post will be written later in the month giving more details of how I got to this point.

For our first week at NABA we were placed in a mixed group of Erasmus students all studying fashion and had an introductory intensive week which was amazing. 

The brief was to design a capsule collection of six T-Shirts that represent your personal style as a designer without using printing and then produce two of the T-shirts to be photographed and presented with boards or a look book at the end of the week. The T-shirts could be made from fabric or reconstructed shop bought T-shirts however had be mostly made from jersey. The tutor who led the week was very inspiring and suggested lots of critical feedback and possibilities of what to do once he had looked at initial research but let each student follow whatever path they desired with no restrictions. One of the really lovely aspects to the week was that sketchbooks we’re not at all required and although I chose to use one as a research aid the freedom to quickly change decisions without having to document the story through your sketchbook as I had to do previously at Coventry University was great. For my project I chose to looks at the futuristic and holographic trends and settled on using a mixture of neoprene, jersey and acrylic decoration. The boards and photographs below are some of the sheets I presented my project with, in criticism the photos are not nearly good enough quality and will be re-done at a later date.

The presentation at the end of the week was fantastic as we were able to look at what everyone else had produced over the week and they had the opportunity to to explain where they had drawn their inspiration from. Our tutor gave feedback on each project of what was done well at what could have been done better, our group included about 16 students from years one, two and three and was a good size and range of abilities. 

The campus at NABA is great I've put some photos below to prove my point! The campus is actually an old army barracks that has been renovated for purpose to it's very interesting looking, there's loads of area outside to sit and eat or relax which is summer I'm sure will be swarming. In terms of people it's amazing to be in an environment with so many creative peers and such interesting and passionate tutors. Milan of course is AMAZING and so far I've only had the chance to explore a very small part of it but already I'm starting to get my bearing more and find the best areas and interesting places to visit. 

At this point the future is definitely exciting.