Georgia Hall – Online Fashion Learning Success From Portobello to New Zealand

Online fashion is something we are all familiar with, but learning fashion buying online?

In 2018, Georgia, a New Zealander, a qualified teacher and a fashion enthusiast was travelling through Europe considering her future career options and found fashion buying at Portobello.

“While travelling I really started to think about what I wanted to do and what I wanted my career path to look like.

“I wanted to do something that I had a strong passion for. For me that was fashion. I’ve always had a keen interest in business too so I started to research some careers in fashion that were more behind the scenes and business orientated,” she said.

Fashion Buying and Merchandising at Portobello

While the world was her oyster, Georgia chose Dublin and Portobello Institute’s Fashion Buying and Merchandising course.

“I looked into fashion buying and discovered the course at Portobello. I’m also a very creative person so when I saw the modules and the content that would be covered I felt that the course would be the perfect fit for me.”

Georgia came to Dublin and enrolled on the course in the autumn of 2019.

When asked about the highlights of the course, Georgia elucidates on three aspects – the PURE fashion buying trade show in London, practical assignments and the Digital Marketing module.

PURE is the London fashion buying event of the year which Georgia attended with her tutor and classmates.

“It was so exciting to see all of the buyers in action and all of the amazing pieces on show by the different designers,” she said.

Fashion Styling

Georgia particularly enjoyed the Fashion Styling module.

“We had to style some looks and photographs, it was really fun having the opportunity to get creative with our ideas and choices of fashion.”

She also enjoyed the digital marketing assignment where she put together the content of her own creation for online distribution.

Challenges and Tutor Support

Commenting on the challenges the course presented, Georgia mentions ‘public speaking’ – this is a challenge for many of us regardless of our level of experience.

“When I first began the course I found it confronting to have to present my work to the rest of the class when I was unsure of if  I was on the right track or not,” she said.

She overcame this challenge with tutor support, encouragement and practice.

“We had so much practice with presenting our ideas individually and in groups. Our Course Coordinator Anne Marie McAuley was amazing and really pushed us to be confident with our ideas and with how we presented.”

“The tutors were all amazing. They were always so helpful and always reminded us that they were only an email away if we ever needed help or had any questions for them,” she said.

Online Fashion Learning ‘Super Seamless’

Covid-19 came and the coursework went online.

“The move to online learning was super seamless actually but it drastically changed my plans for me this year.”

Unfortunately, she was unable to complete her internship and had to put her fashion buying job applications on hold and return to New Zealand.

However, back home, Georgia has been applying all that she learned at Portobello.

She has taken her fashion buying, styling and presentation skills and combined them with the digital marketing and business knowledge to create a profitable business of her own. Her online fashion business continues to grow.

“I have also just started a small partnership with my sister, buying vintage clothing pieces and upselling them.

“We’ve been photographing the pieces and listing them on Instagram. It’s been great because I’ve actually started using Excel (a new skill learnt from the course) to document and keep track of our buying and profits,” she said.

Check it out on Instagram @sifty_vintage.

“I am so pleased that I choose to study at Portobello this past year. I loved the course content and all the tutors were extremely helpful. I’m definitely excited to get my buying career underway in a couple of months,” she said.