Tasha Firth

Why I chose Manchester Fashion Institute                                                         

I knew I wanted to move to Manchester and initially made my decision based on the city. I was then very lucky at the plethora of courses available at the University. After reading about the fashion programmes, and the success rate of employment after graduation, I decided I had to attend one of the Open Days. On exploring the campus, I knew that it was the University for me. It was definitely the right decision because I now see the Manchester Fashion Institute building as another home!

The Course

The BA (Hons) Fashion Promotion course is great!  My favourite projects this year has been the ones where we have been able to run our own photoshoots. It’s been seriously fun, because you get to meet with so many people and style the shoots.

My favourite project so far was last year where we created our own magazine. The brief was very loose and the subject ran on a workshop basis in ‘The Shed’, this allowed us a lot of time to talk and get feedback with the teachers to make our work better. I am very proud of my magazine. We had it printed in ‘The Shed’ and it looks lovely and professional. I will keep it forever. The content may not be relevant in a few years as fashion moves so fast but the memories of making it will always be with me.

I’ve also been able to attend a lot of study trips. My favourite being a trip to Copenhagen! It was fantastic. There are also many events and course talks available to me, we are often emailed about events opportunities and talks – for example, there are talks held at Selfridges, which often feature a celebrity guest and are fun and informative, they also involve free wine!

Student Support

I love my tutors. Gemma Johnson is such a calming influence! She is extremely supportive and easy to contact. Recently, she went out of her way to help us get some studio space set up to ensure that we could get on with a project.

In addition, the ladies who work in the Marketing Team and who help run open days! I see them more as my peers than staff because they are so friendly. They have helped me get many jobs within the University, which is great as I earn money to help finance my studies but also helps to boost my CV!

The Future

My dream for the future is to work within a magazine, to create original content and shoots for the publication.

However right now, the aspiration is getting a first at the end of my degree!

Top tips for future students

Work hard and enjoy Manchester.

Living in halls is great; you don’t realise at the time how central you are. Also – get to know as many of your course mates as you can! Don’t only stick with one group, because you’ll miss out on getting to know amazing people. Try to get to know people from other year groups too – third years are very wise and great for advice!

Finally, keep up to date with social media – this can only help with your projects, which require many collaborations!

View Tasha’s work:

Fashion Communication Lookbook

Synergy Lookbook