3:09PM, Sun Dec 16, 2012

Sunderland Graduate Lands Job With Top US Fashion Brand Abercrombie And Fitch

By India Adams Location: Sunderland

Video: Sophia Ramsey with her final-year project menswear designs

A Sunderland fashion graduate has landed a dream job Stateside after designs from her final-year university project were spotted by one of America’s luxury fashion labels.

Sophia Ramsey will be jetting off to Ohio next February to start a new life and career designing women’s wear for Abercrombie & Fitch.

The unique opportunity came when Sophia and her fellow students on the University of Sunderland’s Fashion, Product and Promotion course raised enough funding to set up a small stall at Graduate Fashion Week in London for the first time in June.

Incredibly, a recruitment agent from Abercrombie & Fitch spotted her collection of menswear designs that the 22-year-old had created as part of her final-year project and suggested she apply for a job.

Within weeks, Sophia found herself on an all-expenses paid flight to the company’s headquarters in Ohio, where she pitted her design skills against 15 other candidates from around the world.

Just a day after returning to the UK she was offered one of four jobs, out of the hundreds of applications received, before she had even graduated.

Sophia, from Gateshead, said: “I feel incredibly fortunate to have been offered such a massive opportunity with a company like Abercrombie & Fitch. I just can’t wait to get started.

“Ironically, I’ll be designing for the company’s womenswear collection, yet it was my designs for men’s clothing in my final year project which initially caught the attention of the recruitment agent in London.

“The interview process in Ohio took place over several days and they liked the portfolio of work I was asked to produce for them.”

But forging a career in fashion was not always on the cards for Sophia, whose talent for drawing was spotted at an early age at school when she was fast tracked to a GCSE in art at age just 13.

After leaving school she toyed with the idea of working with textiles, but a course in this field failed to ignite her passion and she turned to Sunderland’s Fashion, Product and Promotion Degree, introduced to the university just four years ago.

She said: “I chose the course as it looked interesting and I wanted to find out what my strengths were.

“Although I love fashion, I’d never really considered a career in this area, it was only when I started that the course guided me down this route and I became much more interested and confident in mixing my talent for drawing and illustration with a love of design.”

In the months before she starts her career, Sophia plans to spend as much time as possible with her family and friends, continue her children’s face-painting business, designing gifts and cards, as well as researching ideas for her new employers.

Sophia added: “My advice to any student starting their course would be to work as hard as you can and you will get where you want to be in the future. Never put off work!

“I sacrificed a lot of my social life for three years, but to land a job like this was worth every night in and my family are so proud.”

For more information on the Fashion, Product and Promotion Course click here.