Athif Dean: Fashion

3rd year

Student profile: Athif Dean

I studied for two years at Adam Smith College in Fife, doing Fashion Design for Manufacture. I heard about the reputation of the Scottish Borders Campus and its great facilities through friends and lecturers.

When I first arrived at the School of Textiles & Design, I really loved it, the working environment is excellent as it’s not easy to be distracted, but I do find ways! It is a great opportunity as it has amazing guest speakers and is very inspiring. I think it has already given me a solid foundation for a career in a highly competitive industry.

I love the programme, I find the variety exciting, getting to screen print, knit and pattern cut in one semester, is challenging and enjoyable. Fashion is mainly a fashion design course, but we are fortunate to be able to do knitwear, which I have a real passion for, and print, learning to print our own designs on fabric and making dresses out of them. Pattern experimentation is a fast paced class, designed to test our creative ability. We also learn tailoring techniques and making a jacket, within a group, taught us how to compromise and gave an insight in to how industry design teams work.

I heard about the reputation of the Scottish Borders Campus and its great facilities

In Fashion Design for Function, we design a menswear collection looking at men’s detailing using CAD, and fashion illustration using Adobe Illustrator and Adobe Photoshop. My favourite courses were Pattern Experimentation and Knitwear, as I enjoyed the design process of both classes and was extremely happy with the garments and fabric that I produced.

I hope to specialise in knitwear design, in both womenswear and menswear. I want to train and work as a cCouturier and open my own fashion house. If I can’t do that, I’m working for Chanel!