Accessories design personal statement example

Why do you want to study this course or subject?

The object that made me want to study accessories design was a second-hand satchel I bought for £4 at a car boot sale because the shape was good and the strap had torn away. Taking it apart to repair it, I found the maker had skived the leather too thin where the strap met the body, so the stitching had pulled through the grain. That small piece of construction told me more about design decisions than any amount of looking at finished products in shops. Since then I have been interested in accessories as engineering as much as styling: how a gusset controls the volume of a bag, why a hardware choice changes where wear appears, how a buckle tongue should sit so it does not score the leather. Working in a shoe and bag shop has sharpened this. I see which zips fail, which linings tear at the corner seams, and how often customers return something because a handle drop is wrong for the way they actually carry things. I want to design accessories that answer those practical complaints while still being worth looking at. I am also drawn to the material questions the industry is arguing about now, including vegetable tanning, repairability and the mixed record of plant-based leather alternatives, and I would rather learn to test these properly than take marketing claims at face value. A degree gives me the workshop time, technical teaching and criticism I cannot get from a domestic sewing machine and a kitchen table, and the chance to develop a body of work that has a point of view rather than just competence.

How have your qualifications and studies helped you to prepare?

My BTEC Extended Diploma in Art and Design has given me a broad practical base and, more usefully, the habit of working to a brief with deadlines and review points. The unit that shaped my portfolio most was a product design brief where I chose to develop a small collection of bags and belts for cyclists who carry work clothes. I began with drawing and collage, but the real progress came from making toiles in cotton canvas, cutting them open and remaking them until the load sat correctly against the back. My tutor pushed me to record every change with photographs and annotation, so I now have a set of development sheets that show reasoning rather than a pile of finished objects. My A level in Textiles runs alongside this and covers dye processes, weave structure and fibre properties, which has been directly relevant to lining choices and to understanding why some fabrics stretch on the bias in ways that ruin a clean edge. Contextual studies has been harder work for me than making, but it has been valuable: researching the history of trunk and case making for an essay showed me how much of what we treat as decoration began as structural reinforcement at corners and edges. I read Design as Art by Bruno Munari last summer and found his argument about objects being judged by how well they do their job clarifying, even when I disagree with how severe he is about ornament. I am steady with technical drawing, improving at pattern work, and want much more instruction in three-dimensional form.

What else have you done to prepare outside of education, and why are these experiences useful?

For the last eighteen months I have been part of a leathercraft and repair club that meets on Thursday evenings in a shared community workshop. Most members are older than me and make walking boots, dog collars or belts, and I have learned a great deal by asking them why they work the way they do. Two of them taught me saddle stitching with a stitching pony, edge bevelling and burnishing, and how to set rivets without crushing the leather. I have taken on the club's Saturday repair table three or four times a year, mending handles and re-stitching seams for people who bring things in. Some of those jobs have been the most instructive part of my preparation, because you cannot choose the problem. My modest achievement came when a club member asked me to make a tool roll to her measurements; I produced two versions before the closures worked with gloved hands, and she still uses it. My part-time job in a shoe and bag shop involves fitting, stock work and dealing with returns and complaints. It has taught me to explain a material or a construction honestly to someone who has spent their own money, and to take criticism without getting defensive. At home I collect my younger brother from school on weekdays and cook for him, which means my making time is timetabled rather than spontaneous. That has made me organised about workshop sessions and realistic about what I can complete in an evening, which I expect to matter on a course with studio deadlines.

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