PLANTSBROOK SCHOOL FASHION WORKSHOP – Students developed a passion for fashion at a recent workshop – while also learning about the business of building a global brand.
Year 10 students at the Upper Holland Road school spent a day with the successful entrepreneurs behind the F2D Clothing streetwear brand, whose designs have been worn by stars including Miley Cyrus, Ed Sheeran, Dizzee Rascal, and Diversity dancer Ashley Banjo.
The day-long workshop split the students into two teams and challenged them to design a hoodie, with F2D’s Dan Gardiner and Marcus Isaac also teaching them about marketing, branding and clothing production.
The Birmingham-based company will then produce the winning designs, with each student getting one to keep.
Dan, who lives in Four Oaks, founded the firm with Marcus and colleague Gary Thompson when they were all in their 20’s whilst beginning his career as a pastoral manager – a job all three hold today.
We really want to inspire the students to have self-belief. We’re all qualified pastoral mentors, and we’re used to working in schools, so we thought we would combine our two loves – the clothing business and wanting to help children – to create this young fashion designers’ workshop,”
– dan gardiner
He said: “We’ve had this company F2D – Free to Dream – for over a decade now and we’ve been lucky to work with celebrities who have worn our designs and helped the brand to grow.
PLANTSBROOK SCHOOL FASHION WORKSHOP – INSPIRING STUDENTS
“So, over the last two years we’ve de cided to try to go into schools and impart our knowledge and experience on the children so that they can be inspired to perhaps become entrepreneurs themselves.
“We really want to inspire the students to have self-belief. We’re all qualified pastoral mentors, and we’re used to working in schools, so we thought we would combine our two loves – the clothing business and wanting to help children – to create this young fashion designers’ workshop.
“Each team is a board of directors, who have to decide what kind of product they want to make and design it, but within the workshop we also talk about branding, marketing, sales and profit.
“It helps them understand the logistics behind business in a way that they find engaging.”
Plantsbrook Head of Sixth Form Lisa Proctor said: “This was a really unusual and enjoyable way for students to learn about business, which encouraged them to think about the creative process while engaging with all the other things that are part of building a brand.
“Dan and Marcus from F2D really helped the students understand more about being an entrepreneur by communicating in a way that was relevant to them.”