Do you have a passion for High Fashion? Are you interested in building a career for yourself in the Fashion industry? Lots of students wish to work their way to the top, but how exactly, can you achieve this?
We have decided to interview the brilliant Erika Hanson, who’s a 19-year-old Fashion Promotion student in London. Also a fashion blogger and founder of her own ready-to-wear womenswear brand ERISON, as well as having recently interned for ELLE Magazine, we were interested in knowing how it all worked out for her, and how it eventually could for others.
Erika first told us all about herself: she was born and raised in Gibraltar before moving to Kent, UK. Reading lots of Vogue when she was little while her mother was grocery shopping, and having watched lots of fashion movies that inspired her, she finally moved to London in 2017 to study Fashion Promotion. For someone like Erika, who never knew what it would be like to be a fashion student, the « promotion » aspect of fashion seemed to suit her lifestyle really well. The 19-year-old knew she wanted a Fashion career oriented towards everything that has to do with the media. Since she wasn’t sure what role she wanted to play in the industry, saying that Fashion « isn’t just about the creation of clothing » , the fact that Fashion Promotion covered everything from styling, to photography and graphic design, was a great fit for Erika, who’s now in her second year.
When we asked her about the city of London and how it affected her knowledge in Fashion, she said that «London is so diverse and there’s people everywhere from every different background possible, so my views in that sense have definitely broadened » , despite the fact she can’t stand the amount of pollution there can be in London central, where she spends most of her time.
But that is not all, the Artémis team was primarily interested in interviewing Erika because of her online blog, www.itserikahanson.com « I started my blog a few years ago, but was constantly changing platforms and never took it seriously as I was still in school ». Erika also insisted on the importance social media has even for bloggers nowadays: « Many bloggers, like Chiara Ferragni, use Instagram as their main site for attraction » to highlight the fact that to her, blogging is a dying breed. She surely knows what she’s talking about, since she uses her Twitter account as a platform to share fashion moments with her 74 000 followers.
Erika is therefore concentrating on her new brand, ERISON, a read-to-wear womenswear brand suited for the modern woman, which was created in 2017. She informed us that « the idea was born from a sudden realization I had when I realized I had nothing in my life that was long-term, and I wanted to know I had something concrete in my future career. » The new collection, which is designed by Erika herself, whilst also utilizing her ability to create pieces by hand, will be released in 2019.
The student wants to use her degree and the contacts she’s gained through and on her course to grow her brand, which is her long term goal. However, she insists on the importance of internships to help develop her profile. It is very important to grab every opportunity and most importantly to go out and get those opportunities. For so many people who have worked their way up, all have said this: intern. That is what Erika told us and what she believes will help her most with her career.
For this reason, Erika told us about her internship for ELLE Magazine. She says that she claimed insight with a notable company, which has benefitted her in many ways. She’s spoken more precisely about her experience for ELLE Magazine on her blog, that you might want to check out here.
