INSIDE THE FASHION INSTITUTE OF FLORIDA

Going back to a classroom as a grown adult is a whole different thing to learning when you're young. I've written separately about why I went back to fashion school.

RETURNING TO SCHOOL

The Fashion Institute of Florida was focused from the start — small classes, steady pace, and you were expected to turn up and actually pay attention.

The bit I didn't expect to love was the other students. Most of them were around my sons' ages, and yeah, walking in I was very aware of it — I'm pretty sure a few of them wondered what on earth I was doing there. But that lasted about five minutes. I loved being in class with them — their energy, the chatting between tasks, being around people at such a different stage of life. Nobody cared how old I was, and honestly neither did I after the first week.

I wasn't there to rush or prove anything, just to actually get it. And not being in a hurry turned out to be the best part. It was all fundamentals — the stuff that later changed how I approach construction. Even things I already knew how to do, they made me do again and again until I stopped having to think about it.

It also just helped being somewhere that was only about making. Everyone was there for the same reason, so it was easy to ask a daft question, get something wrong, and have another go.

I did the in-person class at the same time as the online garment construction ones, which worked well — I could go at my own pace, rewatch the demos, practise at home, then come back knowing what I was stuck on. Same thing happened later with pattern making.