November began with twice weekly visits to a placement/CV help drop-in session to find out more about putting my CV and cover letters together ready to start applying ASAP to internships for my placement year. It was interesting to start identifying the kind of companies and roles I could see myself working in and I found Abi's advice about CVs really useful as she really knows what employers like and don't like about them at a first glance and when looking more in-depth. I feel like there's a lot of pressure to make a CV look striking from the word 'go' as employers will lose attention quickly given the sheer number they have to get through. Making my CV look more visually striking is something I'll be working towards this month as I get closer to submitting my 'Brand Me' portfolio. I was also really surprised by how short I was advised to make my introductory profile and how much of an impact rewording some sentences has on how confident I sound. For example, by saying 'I have the skills required for this role', I sound much more believable than I would saying 'I believe that I have...'.
During the first week of November I started to notice how Christmas had worked its way onto the high-street so I explored some of the visual merchandising in Leeds City Centre, looking at designer, outlet and high-street windows. During this week, the news broke that M&S would be closing a significant number of their UK stores in an effort to help boost the brand. A big part of this plan meant significantly reducing the focus on their clothing lines and I was extremely surprised by this, given the success of the Archive by Alexa collections and my own changing perceptions of the M&S brand.
Midway through the month, I visited the Imperial War Museum North in Manchester to see the Fashion on the Ration exhibition. It was a really interesting exhibition which gave so much primary information on the real life opinions and feelings of the working class people, paying particular attention to the North - an area which I think is often overlooked when it comes to fashion. The structure of the exhibition made the delivery of the information really successful as it followed a path around the room, with different areas introducing video clips, audio interviews, and garment collections under specific themes. My only issue with the exhibition was how dark it was! It was really difficult to take good photos or even read the information at times, and although it did set the scene for a 'rationed' country in challenging times, it did detract from the overall viewing experience.
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