Jessica Bumpus at UCA Epsom
by Emily Arabadjian, 21.03.2012
Jessica Bumpus, Fashion Features Editor at www.vogue.co.uk, paid a visit to UCA Epsom last Friday. She gave broad insight into the fashion industry, explained the concept of the established website and shared personal experiences with curious students.
Before she started her talk, Bumpus left students astonished when she related that she was only now back to her normal workday post fashion weeks. For three months, starting from the men’s and couture shows in January, every day was occupied with fashion shows, presentations and screenings in London, Milan and Paris. Show reports were written on her Blackberry, often hitting vogue.co.uk way before competitors like style.com.
Bumpus began with guiding us through the renowned fashion website and explaining its different sections, like ‘Today I’m Wearing’, ‘Vogue’s 15th Year Anniversary’ and blogs written by industry insiders Paul Smith and Henry Holland, to name just two.
The veteran journalist didn’t hesitate to share useful tips either. “The people in this very room will be your contacts in the future, so start networking now.” This was a valuable piece of advice given to Bumpus by her own tutors in her first year at university. At first, she laughed it off, but today many of her contacts are indeed former university colleagues.
Students were impressed with Bumpus’ quick breakthrough into the industry. After she graduated from LCF, she was snapped up by Brides magazine, where she worked as fashion assistant before working on the launch of today’s glamourmagazine.co.uk. The rest is history.
After this very professional and engaging talk, students felt even more motivated to succeed in the fashion industry. They got a better understanding of the duties as a fashion features editor and can’t wait to storm the industry. Thank you, UCA, for inviting such a professional and exciting guest lecturer!
