Oasis - Design Your Future

So on Thursday just before the deadline i got my shit together and applied for the Oasis Design Your Future competition in association with Ireland AM on TV3. I was delighted when I got a phone call that evening telling me that I got through to the last 20 and asking me to be up in Oasis Stephens Green at 2 on Saturday!

The first thing that hit me was WOW what an amazing opportunity. The prize for this competition is phenomenal, its a years contract working as a Junior Designer for Oasis in their head office in London! An unbelievable opportunity and whether I make it or not its the kick up the arse i’ve been waiting on to get focused properly on my career. I really didn’t expect to get through I’m sure they had so many amazing entries so i was overwhelmed and so grateful! The second thing that hit me was that I had such a crazy busy weekend ahead of me! Me, that usually spends my weekends in front of the fire with crappy TV on and my laptop or more often than not my gorgeous wee nephew on my knee playing games on my phone and watching animated movies (I LOVE animated movies!!). All of a sudden what was going to be a nice interesting weekend with the Fashion Distilled show on Friday night and a blogger meetup on Saturday afternoon just turned into a crazy weekend, the busiest I’d had since god knows when... I’m getting really quiet in my old age... 

After this had all gone through my head i suddenly realized that we were to bring our portfolios along and mine was that old and that all over the place that at that moment in time it was practically non existent! So I spent Friday pulling the attic apart and getting some photocopying done to patch up my disheveled portfolio. 

Saturday morning came and went and I headed over to the Blogger Meet Up that Samantha from All The Buzz had organized. It was a great event, we got some amazing goody bags and there was a great turn out so I met some lovely bloggers, ones I’d heard of and ones I hadn’t. I didn’t get to stay to enjoy all the fun because it was soon time to leg it across town to the interview and assessment day for the Oasis Design Your Future competition.

I just about made it on time as i battled the torrential rain and got there looking very much like a drowned rat, my make up starting to literally run down my face from the rain. I really didn’t know what to expect. We had been told it would be on from 2 to 6 so I was more than anxious and a little excited to find out what we would be up to! There were 8 of us altogether there had been another assessment on in the morning with the rest of the entrants/contestants. We were introduced to the judges managers from Ireland, designers from the UK and Irish Designer Emma Manley. They really were such a lovely bunch, so friendly and I had some laughs and giggles with them during the whole day. 

We had 3 tasks to perform for them to assess us on, the tasks were individually and team based. The first task was to run down to the shop floor and select a whole look that we felt represented Oasis’s A/W collection best and then bring it back up and split into 2 groups and pick and outfit to be presented from each group. My outfit was selected as the basis out of my group. I had selected the winter blossom blouse with PU collar, over which I layered an oatmeal aran jumper accessorized with a statement black floral necklace. I had picked a zip front leather skirt with lace tights and flat ankle boots, a black quilted tote bag, maroon gloves and a large collared maroon coat. We replaced the maroon coat with a beautiful tailored mac coat with obvious military influences and a nice mix of wool and leather in black, and we also swapped out the bag as one of the girls had spotted a much much nicer one! I was delighted with the overall look of the outfit and felt it really represented the Oasis A/W collection and the customer profile.

The second task was to split into 2 different groups and create a mood board each, one was to be casual and the other going out for this season. We had 30 minutes to do this so we dived right in, we selected the casual look and based it around jumpers both fluffy and aran. It was a bit of a limerick love in in our group for this. One of the girls is in her final year at the minute and another was in college with me so we were really and truly flying the flag!

The final task was for us all to present our portfolios to everyone, we had to select our favorite collection and had 3 minutes each to present it. I was up first and although its been quite a while since i did a presentation i was delighted with how it went, we even had a laugh or two along the way!

We finished up just after 5.30 and i toddled on home. I was sitting with my nephew playing a video game when the call came to tell me I got through to the next round. My favorite wee dude who is only five was as excited as me when i told him the news. He wanted to know if i was going to be on the real telly and what prize could i win. When i told him i could win a good job he asked would i make enough money to buy a new car and maybe one with a spoiler!! I swear he cracks me up he is so adorable!

So thats the full run down of the competition so far. I’m off today for the next round up in dublin, we haven’t been told too much so i’m dying to find out what it is and to see who else got through! I’ll keep you all posted on whats going on here. Thanks so much for all the well wishes... fingers crossed :)  

Related Posts: