I am a final year student at LCF, currently in my third year working on my final collection. Prior to the BA course, I studied 'A' levels in Art, Textiles and Media Studies, then I went on to LCF's Foundation Diploma in Art & Design.

BA Fashion Design Technology: Womenswear. I chose this course because of it's great reputation and also because they teach technical pattern cutting and sewing, which I believe is vital to understand in order to be able to design.

The teaching is really good and it's great being based in East London. The college has a lot of links with industry as well which is really useful for applying for work experience and jobs.

My tutor approached me about the project suggesting that it might complement my final collection.

Pretty much the whole course is practical. I spend all day (and night sometimes) every day doing pattern cutting and sewing!

I visit galleries first for inspiration. Then I go to the library at LCF and look at the vintage Vogue archives as well as books about art movements and designers. Also at the same time I start looking at what fabrics are around. Trend books and style.com catwalk images are also very good for inspiration and important for me to make sure that my work fits in with current trends.

I did a 3 month internship with Wallis during my second year of the course. This was really great to get much more of an insight into the industry and the day to day work as a designer. Also, because Wallis is part of Arcadia, I had the opportunity to go to the sample sales for Topshop, Miss Selfridge & Dorothy Perkins!

Over the summer holidays I also did an internship with Debenhams, which I applied for through the Fashion Business Resource Studio. This was another really great opportunity to make contacts in the industry and to compare working for different companies.

During the second year of the course I worked on 2 projects which were linked with industry. The first one was to design a small collection for Abercrombie and Fitch and the second one was to design a small collection for Tesco Florence + Fred. Some designs from my group's project were selected by Tesco Florence + Fred and are now on sale on the website

There were a few essays which I worked on in the first and second year. And then in the final year I had to write a proposal for my collection. The written work has given me more inspiration and sources to look to for visual research.

Yes - although at first, we go through designing and making each garment at a time so that we know how to make the basics e.g. jeans, shirts, t-shirts, tailoring. There is a lot of room for individual creativity in the final year.

London street style and club culture, historic references, architecture. Designers: Hussein Chalayan, Giles Deacon, Elsa Schiaparelli, Martin Margiela

Work really hard.

Be prepared to let your designs evolve from the original concept - don't cling too much to your ideas because this will restrict your creativity.

Take every opportunity you get to do something extra.