Nicole Abbott Paul Smith 'Work in Progress' Exhibition & Presentations

Not long ago after Christmas I received an email saying I was chosen to exhibit my work at the Minories for the 'Work in progress exhibition' for the Nicole Abbott Award.
I was very happy to be picked to exhibit my work there and felt excited that the team from Paul Smith would see my work, along with Nicole's mum Suzanne!
My work was inspired by Japanese and Chinese ceramics, it linked not only to what was happening in the trends for Autumn Winter 2015 but also my mentor Noel Chapman who buys and sells vintage Indigo pieces. I loved a second year project we did on Shibori and I wanted to take this Japanese technique further. Japan is also a huge place for Paul Smith, with over 200 stores in just Japan alone!

Hand dyed Shibori made digital (Photos: Joe Purtell)

Sweet and simple exhibition display

My exhibition display was very simple, in fact the simplest in the whole exhibition. I essentially stressed out because of this and thought it wouldn't have any impact at all considering the unique and innovative ideas of other, but then realised that the prints needed to be the focus of my exhibition. Once I stood back and looked at it after I had put the exhibition up a few days later, I felt like it worked well for what I had made.
I had a white rail that matched the hangers on my headers as well as a white plinth on the floor to showcase more embellished and 'special' prints. The main colours were silver and white with the hangers both colours and my pins for my portfolio pages being silver. I believe that my portfolio had a good impact as to what my collection was about and separated them into four sections of 3 pages, with the samples next to them.

Embellishment

When the team from Paul smith came in (Rouze and Clare), with Suzanne I wasn't very nervous because they seemed very welcoming and friendly. I didn't really prepare anything because my mind was more on a presentation we did the day before for our final major projects. Saying that, I did research as much as I could about the brand and watched a Vogue series featuring Paul himself with Alexa Chung. He seemed very laid back and gets very inspired by simple things and travelling, which certainly comes across on his Instagram! I decided to let the order of my presentation just flow naturally and see what happened. They seemed to love the concept and everything I showed them, to which they referred to as 'commercial' which i knew was a good thing for their brand when they said that to me. I also had my full portfolio with me, which was great because I showed them this and my sketchbooks, giving them a look at more of my work.

Samples hanging from my portfolio

They loved the pleated print

Overall the team gave very positive feedback and the word 'commercial' was mentioned very often. Not only was I told this by Tania from Paul denicci (childrenswear), but also Carly from Oasis (high street). I think this is positive because it shows my design style can be sold and I keep the target market in focus when I design. They also mentioned and pointed out certain prints they could imagined for the company, which again was a great pointer.

Looking at the high level of work produced this year from my classmates as well, I wasn't overly confident that I would get picked, not knowing exactly what criteria they were judging us on and whether the stand displays would pay a bigger part than I thought.

That being said I was chosen as one of the finalists for the award and I can say that I was chosen to meet and present my work to Sir Paul Smith himself! This is very exciting and cannot wait to meet him and show my work! I am very grateful for this opportunity and it's a great way to be noticed by the industry, with the winner given a placement with the print team!

Once the three finalists were chosen, we had lunch with the team and were able to ask them several questions and tips and it was fascinating to hear from those that work in the industry and how they got there. I also asked for some constructive criticism, to which they said florals are very important in any portfolio as it shows good strength in drawing and is very commercial. As well as different colourways for one projects.

Overall the whole experience so far has been very rewarding and I feel very lucky to have gotten this far and cannot wait for the next step!