Last spring, I graduated as a dressmaker. During my last year in the vocational school I did a part of my work practice in the Fur studio of Centria University of Applied Sciences. I fell completely in love with the material and have since then been assisting in workshops, participated in Discovering Fur module and in the autumn I began my studies of fur and entrepreneurship. I was granted a Fur Futures bursary to finance my studies and my trip to Milan, to the MiFur International Fur Fair.
During the education we learned the basics about fur such as pattern making, the nailing and cutting process, sewing and of course learned about different fur skins. We also visited some fur farms, as we have a lot of them here in the Ostrobothnia, Finland.
In the education we were supposed to make two fur vests, the first one as a practise and the other one as a test. I made the first vest out of blue fox and for the second vest I used black rabbit fur with a belt of mocca leather and fish skin. Beside the studies I have made a jacket out of blue fox scraps and a lot of accessories in fur and leather, just in order to learn as much as possible during my year in the fur studio.
In March 2014 I got the opportunity to go to the MiFur fair in Milan to represent an international workshop that was held here in Jakobstad and to do marketing for the school´s BBA programme that starts next autumn. I was overwhelmed by how big the fair was and the variety of fur that was presented. I enjoyed working at the stand, as I think marketing is very fun and to meet people from all over the world with different backgrounds and professions was extremely rewarding. It was an interesting and learning experience to see what is going on in the fur trade internationally and to get an update of the latest fur fashion trends.
We also attended REMIX 2014. The show was professionally organised, the young designers were very talented and for a small town girl from way up in the north the whole event was very impressive indeed. I even managed to get a picture with Editor in Chief of Vogue Italia, Franca Sozzani!!!
The best thing about my stay in Milan was all the interesting people I met and the important contacts I made. All of this increased my inspiration for designing and boosted my motivation for the future.
Click here to visit Furstudio of Centria University of Applied Sciences’ website.