Street Chic Magazine

Besides being part of my final year project at Birmingham City University, creating my own online fashion magazine was something I always had my mind set on doing at some point in my life, and when the opportunity arose, I decided to take it.

Merely viewing my endless towering piles of fashion magazines, slight addiction to Instagram and vast streams of fashion content in my internet history, would be enough to see why. And so, several moodboards, a dash of web development and a cup of imagination later birthed Street Chic Magazine.

Street Chic Magazine is an online destination for all your fashion inspiration and style needs. Based in Birmingham, it provides solely high-street fashion content; aimed towards the forward-thinking modern-day woman, with an enthusiastic interest in feeding her inner Street Chic etiquette and leading a visually captivating life.

Launched in February of this year, the whole process of Street Chic Magazine, from pre-production to post-production, took a total of seven months. Beginning with market research, followed by quantitative and qualitative audience research, the online magazine was founded by discovering a gap in the market.

Facebook post: Street Chic Magazine Spring Lookbook montage | Visit SS16 Lookbook here

A gap that could be filled with a West Midlands based publication that owns a niche edge of producing solely fashion content regarding the high-street only (hence the name), while being of interest to a mass audience with a friendly, informative, intelligent and relatable in-house writing and visual style.

There are many publications existing already, whether that be print or online, which focus on upmarket fashion or a mixture of both upmarket and high-street. Yet, there lacked a presence of a publication that concentrates on just high-street fashion, for more affordable prices, and ways to style it to look just as classy and head-turning as the more high-end attire; your own personal burst of outfit inspiration, fashion news and style tips readily available online for whenever you may need it.

Street Chic Magazine flyer | Business card mock up | April Email Newsletter | Athleisure and 90’s fashion outfit inspiration collages | Experiments with potential logo designs 

The creation of the magazine was all led by myself, including the web layout, planning and composition of articles, management of its various social media accounts and building of contacts via networking, all of which were – and still are – driven by my skills gained from past university modules, first-hand experience of the industry and own creative knowledge and ambitions.

Several fellow students contributed to what the magazine is today in the form of photography for lookbook photoshoots, modelling outfits and additional writers for various articles. While most of the editorial content was constructed through my use of following leads, interviewing local stylists, designers and store owners, my enthusiastic fashion awareness and media law understanding.

Behind the scenes of our SS16 lookbook (Geek Chic outfit shoot) | Instagram flat lay for How to style jeans edit

As well as this publication encapsulating all that I have learnt these past three years in higher education as a journalism specialist, it also showcases the direction I would like to follow in the future as a graduate and what I can offer.

Throughout the whole process I believe I’ve demonstrated a variety of technical, journalistic and research skills to generate a sustainable online magazine that fills an interesting and worthwhile gap. The opportunity to create such a publication was something I always anticipated on doing, initially I wanted to set up my own fashion blog, but specialising in journalism at Birmingham City University has inspired me to absolutely take up online fashion journalism as a career.

Creating Street Chic Magazine has also helped me with my plans beyond graduation – besides choosing to carry on establishing SCM, as I believe it has potential – but to aim towards working at a fashion magazine (Hello! Fashion, Grazia or Glamour would be really quite nice) and to be a journalist for a leading city news publication, where my enthusiasm and creativity would allow me to progress.

You can see more of Street Chic Magazine by following us on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter, see you there!

Quick update: Important links to check out

I have worked on a range of projects, created a wide portfolio of articles, fulfilled certain job roles and responsibilities and generated my own website and content. Feel free to click on the following links to view this collection of work…

Street Chic Magazine – Besides this being my final year project for my university degree, creating my own online fashion magazine is something I’ve planned on doing for a while. It has recently launched, so please do feel free to check it out!

Immersive longform unemployment article – During the 2015 general election, I reported the topic of unemployment. Surviving off a shoestring budget, I immersed myself into the struggle benefits claimants’ face, to uncover this harsh, and often stereotyped, reality. Interviewing a claimant and a Job Centre worker, I also produced interactive data content and a liveblog.

Immersive longform fathers’ rights article – Being inspired by his story and ultimate goal in life, I interviewed fathers’ rights activist, Bobby Smith, after his Buckingham Palace roof-top protest last year. Through being a victim of the current law system, I uncovered his risky mission for change and ever-growing determination to see his children again.

Rt Hon Andrew Mitchell interview – After reporting on the count all night and into the early morning of 2015’s general elections in May, once the results had been announced at Sutton Coldfield’s Town Hall, I interviewed the newly re-elected Conservative, Andrew Mitchell, via Audio Boom to discuss his reaction.

Election 2015: Sutton Coldfield Hustings – I liveblogged Sutton Coldfield’s 2015 hustings via Sutton Coldfield Local’s Twitter account, to have a look at all the was discussed, click the link above.

#BrumVote Storify liveblogs – I have also liveblogged Birmingham’s 2015 National Youth Debate and my time investigating what it is like as a benefits claimant, both of these experiences have been documented on Storify.

NUBI Magazine fashion editor content – As former fashion editor for one of Birmingham’s emerging dynamic and innovative online platforms, I was on top of the latest news and trends and enjoyed working as part of a creative team. Using NUBI as my megaphone to make the world fall more and more in love with fashion with every article I wrote.

Internship at Sky blog

Sutton Coldfield Local hyperlocal news stories

Internship at Sky blog

Birmingham Eastside reporting

Sky Work Experience Placement

The beginning of this month I was fortunate to have the opportunity to spend three days on placement at Sky headquarters in Osterley, working in the content services department (#SkyNews, hello?!). I know what you’re thinking, pretty great, right!

So, how did I get the placement? Back in February there was an email circulating via my university regarding the chance to join a meeting with Dave Rooke, Head of Content Services at Sky, to talk about an opportunity to apply for this year’s Sky placements. Knowing that BCU have great ties with Sky, prior to even enrolling with BCU, I knew this was something I definitely could not miss out on.

The meeting itself was deeply interesting; being able to ask someone who manages a large section of Sky questions, as well as the three students who won the placement last year, was highly motivating and valuable. By the end of the meeting we were told that in able to apply we had to complete a 750 word form on why Sky should consider me for a work experience placement, which would then lead to an interview upon success. Still feeling inspired from the meeting, I got onto to doing this straight away.

Luckily I was chosen as one of the 15 candidates to get through to the interview stage (yay!). I spent a lot of time preparing for the interview, researching everything Sky – from the CEO to the how well their new release of audience home entertainment, Buy and Keep, is doing, and so on. I even started having dreams of clouds and beliefs of better…

Come the interview day, I was nervous – sweaty palms and adrenaline pumped heart beats were in full swing. The interview itself was informal and was one of my best ones as of yet! I remember coming out of it feeling A) proud of myself, B) very hopeful, C) I supposed quite relieved and D) dazed over the fact that I had just spoken to head of Content Services, Dave Rooke, about the news, the media industry and why he should pick me.
To put in perspective: the people I spoke to at Sky during my three days, Dave Rooke is their manager’s, manager’s, manager’s manager. Let’s just let that sink in.

A week later I was fortunate to be chosen as the runner-up for the placement! Although I didn’t win the two week long internship, I was incredibly pleased to have even been considered to have this opportunity. A couple of people I know applied for the internship last year and didn’t get to the interview stage; who then applied again this year and did. I applied the one time and got that far, I couldn’t have been any happier!

A few weeks later I arrived at Sky. The whole campus is huge! It’s like their own little estate – there’s a gym, multiple restaurants, an amazing canteen, a car wash point, a bike shop, home of Sky Academy, various hubs and buildings and to top all that off, they are currently constructing a new building, which is the biggest yet! The whole place is incredible, and better still, it’s all environmentally friendly. The buildings themselves are sleek, innovative and aesthetically professionally pleasing; and yet, very welcoming. The first day consisted of sunny weather, which was just a bonus.

The work experience was overseen by James Morris, Becky Brown in the run up to the three days and two very welcoming and pleasant media workers Ben and Kenny – who were all wonderful to work with. I was doing my placement with another student who won an additional runners-up position, so it was fun to share the experience with someone I knew. On the morning of our first day we had our friendly, welcoming induction: were given cups of tea and coffee, asked any questioned we had and were shown around the different sections.

What were my three days like there..?