module specification

This module develops skills in and critical understanding of writing and reporting on fashion across multiple platforms, including magazines, blogs, social media and video content. Looking at the latest trends and influence in the industry, and covering editorial and commercial case studies, it aims to help you develop working skills in fashion journalism, blogging, broadcasting and photography, as well as establish professional practices to improve your employability skills. It also provides students with an insight into how marketing and advertising concerns affect  fashion journalism copy.

You will critically examine the genres in fashion writing and reporting practice across a range of publications. You will discuss and look into the implications of the way we write about fashion – and how it is marketed - considering the implications for inclusivity and creating a socially responsible workspace within fashion and journalism industries.

You will practice writing for different clients, publications and genres, and across different multimedia platforms. This will include writing about trends, products, people and businesses for editorial and commercial and marketing purposes across platforms.

You will also establish and run a fashion blog and create a media pack that would serve future collaboration with businesses and media. For this, you will create and assess a content strategy and learn to communicate the unique selling proposition of your fashion content, in order to make your product more marketable.

In class, you will learn through a combination of lectures, practical classes and seminars, and weekly styling and journalism tasks. You will be assessed through a fashion writing portfolio, a blog project including a media pack, and an online journal.

The module focuses on both developing the students’ writing skills in the area of fashion across platforms and thinking about this writing from an entrepreneurial point of view, considering the options of developing the students’ future careers.

Students will examine the journalistic production process at the centre of fashion journalism, learning how to source stories, network and develop relationships within the industry and find unique stories to report on. They will practice a variety of skills, including fashion photography, video creation and, crucially, writing that goes into any fashion content creation. They will practice the main fashion writing genres, including reviews, columns, interviews and features, as well as the variety of publications that they can write for in their future careers. They will consider which stories get told, and which ones get left out, and develop confidence and ambition in fashion writing, as well as understanding of what inclusive and socially responsible fashion content can be. [LO1, LO4,]

Students will practice finding and recognising trends, as well as using this information as a basis of their fashion writing. They will also look at the process critically, discussing who gets to set and report on trends, and how this process can be improved, made more responsible and inclusive. [LO2, LO3]

Students will examine fashion blogging and vlogging in perspective, looking at the historical and contemporary contexts and current issues and developments. They will discuss influencers and the practice of influencing and its influence on the fashion industry as whole. [LO1, LO2]

Then students will start their own fashion blogs, considering the elements of creating their own brand, creating a business plan, a marketing plan, and a media pack, a plan for working with brands and monetising the blog. They will work on their blogs within the classroom and in the independent working time, with the coaching of the tutor and reflection on own work. [LO2, LO4]

The module will be taught by a programme of weekly sessions, comprising a three-hour block for each of the weeks in which it runs. Learning and teaching strategy will be based on an interactive practice-oriented model.

Teaching methods include lectures, workshops, guest speakers, site visits and tutorials. Students are expected to attend and encouraged to participate in the sessions.

In workshops and practical sessions students will work on fashion writing and their blogs and present their work to get constructive feedback from peers and tutor. In the feedback sessions they are expected to raise issues, ask questions and seek and offer feedback to enable them to reflect on practice.

Tutorials and formative assessments will take place to prepare students for the summative assessments.

Electronic resources, including the university’s VLE and its tools, will be used by students and staff. VLE will contain notes, slides, readings, and weblinks related to the weekly teaching session topics.

Independent reflective study, including reading and styling and writing exercises, will form the backbone of every session. In addition to guided reading, students are expected to read and follow media and fashion media critically.

On successful completion of this module, having completed all the tasks set, students should be able to:

LO1. Demonstrate critical understanding of contemporary practice in fashion writing and reporting, including marketing concerns;
LO2. Run an active fashion blog that can be used as a platform for future business and networking that includes the ability to predict future trends and patterns within the industry;
LO3. Report confidently on fashion, editorially and commercially, across multi-platforms, and be able to discuss trends from a critical perspective
LO4. Demonstrate ability to write in a range of styles for different clients, publications and platforms.

Core and additional reading lists:

https://rl.talis.com/3/londonmet/lists/C6AF576E-2E61-A516-5C12-225245C4AF47.html?lang=en&login=1