Apparel Design (MA) postgraduate personal statement example

Personal statement example

Most of the trousers that come across my bench at the tailor's where I work arrive with a pin at the ankle and a customer who has been standing on a box. Occasionally someone arrives who cannot stand on the box, and those fittings taught me more about how clothes behave on a body than anything I had pinned on a dress stand. A man who uses a wheelchair brought in a pair of chinos last spring and asked for them to be shortened. When I measured him seated, it was clear that length was the least of the problem: the back rise pulled down, the front bunched into the lap, and the pocket openings sat where he could not reach them. We altered what we could, but a garment cut for a standing figure can only be corrected so far after the fact. I want to pursue postgraduate study in apparel design to work on that earlier stage, where fit and function are decided in the pattern rather than patched at the bench.

My undergraduate degree in fashion design gave me a solid grounding in flat pattern cutting, draping and construction, and I enjoyed technical units more than I expected to. For my final collection I designed three outerwear pieces for people who spend most of the day seated. Two volunteers from a local wheelchair sports club agreed to try toiles, and over four fittings each I learned how much a seated posture changes the body's measurements. I lengthened the back rise, shortened the front, moved closures to the side so they could be fastened with one hand, and cut the coat body shorter at the back so it would not bunch against the seat. One volunteer told me the second toile was the first jacket he had worn that did not ride up when he pushed. The collection was not perfect. I relied on magnetic fastenings that were expensive and heavy, and I did not test the fabrics properly for abrasion where hands meet wheels. Those gaps are part of why I want further study: I can make a garment that works for two people, but I want the research methods to know whether it would work for many.

Working at the tailor's for eighteen months has sharpened my hand skills and my patience. I take in waists, replace zips, and re-line jackets, and I have learned to read how a garment was constructed by unpicking it. It is ordinary work, but it shows me every week where ready-to-wear patterns fail real bodies, and it has made me quick and careful with customers who feel awkward about being measured.

I have also been reading more widely. Graham Pullin's Design Meets Disability made me think about how assistive products can be desirable as well as functional, rather than designed to be unnoticed. It shifted my aim from making adaptive clothing that looks like everything else to making it look deliberately good.

Outside work I sing alto in a community choir, which has nothing to do with clothing except that I am now the person who repairs everyone's concert outfits before performances. Most evenings I walk a neighbour's elderly spaniel, which gives me time to sketch ideas in my head before I put them on paper.

At master's level I want to develop a more rigorous approach to fit research, including body measurement methods, wear trials and material testing, and to learn how to gather feedback from users systematically rather than through goodwill and a few fittings. I would like to explore how pattern blocks for seated bodies could be developed and shared, so that adaptive design does not depend on one-off alterations. I bring practical construction skills, experience of working directly with wearers, and a clear question I am eager to investigate properly.