Winning the Paul Smith Nicole Abbott Award 2016

After exhibiting my work at the Minories and being selected as one of the three finalists to present my work to Paul Smith by his team... it was finally time to meet him and show him my work.

Meeting Paul Smith was an incredible experience and I really learnt a lot about the company, with the two students (Nat and Ailish). We presented our work first thing to him in the morning as we arrived at the HQ in London. This was the same work that was at exhibited the Minories last month, where their team and Nicole's mum Suzanne picked the three of us to meet Paul, where he would pick the winner. 

His assistants brought a variety of drinks in for us as we prepared and got our stuff out to present to him. There were about 8 of us in the room, including our tutor and we each took it in turns presenting our work. I presented my work to him last and didn't feel too nervous or starstruck, I just wanted to tell him about my work, like I would to anybody. During my presentation he stopped me briefly and gave some good constructive advice on editing and selecting as I had so many samples and questioned me on many of my ideas and choices. At this point I thought I probably wasn't going to win, but in fact, looking back it, I think it played a bigger part. 

After the presentation was complete and during the time Paul was selecting the winner, we took a tour of the print and design department. It was amazing to see how they all worked and how they organised the entire space was. Once we came back he announced me as the winner and I felt a little bit shocked at first, given what I thought before, but extremely grateful to have won! He also played a little applause from a little device he had and his humble and humorous nature was seen from the second we got there in the morning. He said it was very close but he wanted to choose someone who had a wider understanding of everything. So I felt great that he thought he could see a lot of what I could do just from my presentation and what I showed him.

It's funny because my mentor Ellie-Dolan Roberts won it last year and she has been someone I have kept in close contact with ever since my second year. It was a very humbling experience to meet such an iconic figure in the industry and how everyone in the team has such enthusiasm and positivity for their careers. I am certainly very excited to complete my placement there in a few months and meet many people from the team. His office collection is very inspiring as he loves to collect hundreds of things, yet knows exactly where everything is.

After lunch we saw his store in Covent garden, again it was incredible to get a tour of the whole store and be explained design details and areas of the collections from the staff that worked there. We later went back to the HQ to see the marketing, press and architect areas which were incredible. I didn't realise how many incredible jobs there are just outside of 'fashion design' or 'textiles' which are equally as exciting to me and still creative! Just before we headed back we went to Mayfair to see his store, which was truly amazing. It featured his latest collections, an exhibition,  a Japanese garden and lots of art, both for sale and pieces gifted to him. 

Doodle on the water that is given to customers, drawn by Paul!

This was one of my favourites! A wall covered in tens of thousands of dominos. I love how everything was very unique and 'wow.' It has been a very inspirational day and one I won't forget for a long time!

Overall it was a wonderful day out with both the girls, Val and Suzanne. The team were great to meet again and they even made us each a photo montage from the day which we got to keep, which was a really nice touch! I look forward to going back and working with the print team and truly believe this is an incredible opportunity for the course, which gives one person each year an insight and placement into one of the world's most recognised brands.