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Fashion Photography students gain industry experience through SOMER

Friday, 18 September, 2026

ºÚÁÏÕýÄÜÁ¿ Fashion Photography students have gained hands-on industry experience through a series of live projects with SOMER, a sustainable fashion store and immersive learning space in Bath.

Launched in June 2025 by Future Fashion Works from ºÚÁÏÕýÄÜÁ¿, SOMER brings together sustainable fashion, creative enterprise and education. Alongside supporting more than 300 local creative businesses and graduates, the space provides opportunities for students to work on real-world briefs and develop invaluable industry experience before they enter the industry.

Over the past academic year, second-year students on the Fashion Photography course have worked with SOMER across three industry-inspired projects, developing their creative practice while responding to real briefs and working alongside industry professionals.

For their first project, students selected a sustainable fashion brand stocked at SOMER and created a bespoke promotional fashion film. The project gave students the opportunity to produce work for a real brand while developing creative concepts, working collaboratively and creating content that could become part of their professional portfolios. 

For second-year Fashion Photography student Ruby Branch, the project provided an opportunity to work with a brand she already admired. 

“Our group chose to make a fashion film for the brand Grandpa’s Shirts whose work I have admired for a while. I enjoyed building a character around the clothes and the experience gained. We even got reposted by the brand’s Instagram, which boosted my creative confidence.” 

The second project saw students organise a model casting day at SOMER. Using SOMER’s central location, they developed a marketing campaign to promote the event before transforming the store into a pop-up photography studio. 

Students produced promotional posters and social media content, while members of the public, SOMER customers, and students were invited to attend, have professional-style headshots taken, and register their interest in modelling for future Fashion Photography projects.  

Jessica Hannan, Fashion Business Manager at Future Fashion Works, said:  

“The students did a brilliant job at marketing the event, the store was packed with students and the public queuing for their head shots! I think most of the BSU netball team showed up, we even borrowed a few of them and shot some content for the SOMER Instagram.” 

The final collaboration formed part of the students’ Fashion Editorial module, which ran across 12 weeks. SOMER drew on its creative network to connect students with experienced industry professionals, including Bath-based stylist Tess Yopp, who works with fashion brands and regularly styles Vogue covers, and videographer and director Maxwell Bamber, whose clients include Nike, The North Face and Sephora. 

Students developed and produced their own fashion shoots, supported by mentoring throughout the project. To celebrate the work, SOMER brought the students’ photography together in a print magazine, with copies available from SOMER in Bath and specialist magazine store Magalleria, and proceeds supporting the next student publication.

Senior Lecturer in Fashion Photography, Seamus Nicolson, said: 

“The contribution SOMER made to student learning amongst our Y2 cohort was immense. The students got a taste of real-life industry from the in-store activities, the feedback from Jess Hannan, Fashion Business Manager at Future Fashion Works, Tess Yopp, and Maxwell Bamber, and the print magazine production was an energising input at such a critical turning point in their development.” 

To find out more about SOMER visit the dedicated webpage or follow them on Instagram.