From Mumbai to London – My Experience on the Vogue Fashion Certificate Course

Having recently completed the intensive 10-week Vogue Fashion Certificate course, celebrity stylist Parakram SJB Rana recounts his time on the course and what it means for his fashion career ahead… 

Being a Celebrity stylist for over five years and a blogger for over three years made me want to take to my next step, to start my brand that I have been working on for nearly a year.

Vogue Fashion Certificate Course Review

What I needed was to get a better understanding of the global fashion industry. The intention was to be able to improve in all fields of my work. I came across the ‘Vogue Fashion Certificate’ course under the Conde Nast College of Fashion & Design and could not think of any other course that was more practical than this one. 

Related posts:

• What to pack for the Vogue Fashion Certificate course
• What’s the Vogue Fashion Certificate course really like? 

From Mumbai to London

A 10-week course was apt for me to not miss out on work back in Mumbai and to be able to learn a lot in this intensive certificate course. The value of learning directly from the team of British Vogue, GQ and many more reputed magazines that come under the Conde Nast family was certainly understood. 

I learnt a lot during this course which focuses on Fashion Media, Fashion Marketing and Visual Communication for Fashion. The course also delves into styling which was a pleasant surprise. 

Fashion College in London

A memorable experience was in the first week of the course where we had to explore the Fashion, Art and the City of London by taking pictures around the area of the college, which happens to be in the heart of Soho, London’s creative hub. 

Being able to get inspired by the fashion of the people around the streets of Soho, the endless numbers of art exhibitions and exploring the city as a whole for our first assignment was the perfect introduction to our course and London. I immediately fell in love with London and was inspired till the very end of my course.

Intensive Fashion Communication Course

The course is very intensive and you are engrossed with your learning and assignments around class time. Every day, I would be left inspired to learn more from my daily teachings from the course. The college library has a plethora of fashion books that just made me want to be there at all time. The College has an invaluable archive of all the Vogue issues from the past 50 years and that was such a useful tool for students to understand how fashion and culture have evolved over time. 

Studying alongside MA & BA Students at the Condé Nast College

Among all of these was also a class where we joined the BA and MA students that discussed the ‘Culture and Context of Fashion’ through the last Century of Fashion. 

The teacher’s knowledge and enthusiasm of the costumes from hundreds of years ago to present day really made us travel back in time with her.

Industry speakers at Condé Nast College

Each week there was an Industry speaker who would address the whole college about topics of interest from the fashion industry. Some of the notable speakers during me time at the College were Nicholas Coleridge, (now ex) Chairman of Conde Nast Britain and the V&A Museum, Holly Shackleton – Editor-in-Chief of Vogue International, Emily Zak – Head of fashion shows at Vogue International, Josh Newis-Smith – GLAMOUR’s Entertainment Director, and the internationally acclaimed set designer Gideon Ponte to name a few. Their insights about their work and life will always be valued and cherished by me.

As a whole, the ‘Vogue Fashion Certificate’ course has been such a great learning experience for me as well as all my classmates. What was interesting to know is that everyone joined this course for their unique reasons and yet they were all satisfied and confident to take the next step by the end of the course. I have left the Condé Nast College feeling inspired and motivated about my future endeavours. 

By Parakram SJB Rana

For our Vogue Fashion Certificate course dates and to reserve your place click here