The Made-It Bursary Scheme was created by UKFT to further the production and sourcing knowledge of graduates while promoting UK manufacturing. It offers to five students per academic year the chance to undergo a funded-internship at a top UK brand, studio or manufacturer. The programme runs in collaboration with 5 UK-based universities and funding is leveraged from CapitB and Clothworkers. Click here for further information.

Meet Lucrezia Grazioli, a 2nd Year BA Fashion Design student from Istituto Marangoni and one of the 5 finalists of UKFT’s Made-IT Internship Scheme for the year 2021-2022. Through the programme, she won a fully-funded internship experience with a UK-based production and manufacturing business.

Lucrezia undertook an 8-week placement with Mackintosh, in their prestigious manufacturing site in Nelson, Lancashire, over the summer.

During her internship at the coat maker Mackintosh, Lucrezia developed her fashion knowledge and got to meet people from the industry. She said:

“Throughout the experience, I got to develop my technical drawing, pattern cutting and interaction in making a garment and its production.

This experience helped me to develop a deep knowledge of fashion production and manufacture, which you do not see in stores, but by learning from experience. As part of a young group of people that love fashion, my experience helped to get the “inside view” of fashion. Mackintosh is different from other brands, they have a structural, traditional and technical focus as a fashion brand fashion that I first fell in love with in the archive room.”

 

Lucrezia discovered the traditional methods and fabrics used to make Mackintosh coats. She explained:

“Each coat is made using their traditional fabrics, crafted in their factory by artisans that craft each single garment using the same traditional methods pioneered in the early 19th century.

During this internship, I also had the opportunity to design my own coat. By doing this, I stuck with Mackintosh’s tradition by using rubberised fabric. I was particularly inspired by the gluing process when I saw their manufacturing work. By crafting my coat and analysing each detail, I have been able to know how to translate communication between the designer and the artisan. Through that, I have learned how to make and specify each design detail by creating a technical drawing and spec sheet.”

 

“Overall, my internship experience has given me a fantastic insight into the fashion industry, and this experience has allowed me to envisage where I can picture myself in the industry in the future,” Lucrezia concluded.

 

Want to read more about MADE-IT? Click on the link below:

MADE-IT PROJECT