Today the spotlight is on the fashion textiles department where students were recently treated to a talk from costume creator Emma Brassfield.

Students who study fashion textiles at the College learn and develop a variety of creative and technical skills required to progress onto a range of degree courses. Students have gone onto study fashion, printed and constructed textiles or other related degrees such as fashion journalism, interior design or product design.

Emma has done just that and returned to College to tell current students how. She discussed her journey from A level textiles to freelance costume creator and special effects artist for prestigious projects in the film and media industry.

Emma has developed her career over the past 17 years specialising in the production of creature costumes, special effects costumes and animatronics. Some of her most renowned credits include Iggle Piggle from In The Night Garden, the Batsuits in Batman Begins and the newly designed face helmets for The Flash in the Justice League film. Emma’s creature costumes have also been seen in the Harry Potter series and the most recent Star Wars films.

The lunchtime talk gave students an insight into the industry and highlighted the need to develop a range of skills during their time at College which can be transferred into the professional world. Emma discussed a wealth of topics, covering self-employment, past and current projects, work ethic and how to maintain that creative spark whilst working on several different projects. Both students and staff at the event were blown away by how much Emma has achieved in her relatively short career path.

Penny Willis, Subject Tutor for textiles & fine art said, "It was so enriching to have a professional costume designer in College inspiring students and giving clear advice on to how to build a career. Emma's enthusiasm demonstrated how a good work ethic and creative thinking opens doors to amazing opportunities."

Helena Luke, first year student commented, “Hearing Emma talk about her job really opened my eyes to the range of jobs there are in the special effects and costume departments of films and to think about what career path I might like to take - utterly inspiring!”

We hope to welcome Emma back next year to inspire our next cohort of students! If you are interested in pursuing a career in art or textiles, take a look at how our fine art or fashion textiles course could help facilitate that.