Phoebe Trakkas

Final year Fashion and Communications student, Phoebe Trakkas, has won a 12-week scholarship at the Fabric Academy on their advanced marketing strategy programme. Fabric Academy was set up as part of the Unwritten Group, a marketing and communications agency in the North East of England.

Phoebe will develop an integrated marketing and communications strategy from scratch for an organisation, ready to present to the senior team at Fabric Academy and receive feedback to help her develop new skills and progress into a career in marketing.

Phoebe was informed about the scholarship by Catherine Glover, Senior Lecturer in Fashion Communication at Northumbria. She then applied for the scholarship, which involved writing a 250-word pitch about why she should be chosen for the course and creating a digital portfolio of her university work.

The founder of Fabric Academy, Lisa Eaton, then contacted Phoebe to offer her a place and explained how impressed she was with her work. Phoebe said: “I was over the moon with the opportunity given to me, especially due to the very short space of time I had to complete the requirements in.”

Phoebe has now completed her final project at university and is grateful for the support she received from Northumbria during the pandemic, including being supplied with a laptop to help her complete her studies from home. She said: “My lecturers were amazing at supporting me and my peers, especially when nobody was used to online teaching or learning.

“I also feel like I have achieved higher grades due to being much more focused on my work during the pandemic restrictions and working from home, so it has benefited my university work.”

Phoebe is now using the knowledge she has gained during her time at Northumbria to help launch her own eco-friendly clothing brand, 'Saint & Angel', which specialises in women’s lingerie. Phoebe used her final project at university to develop the brand’s ethos of transparency and being eco-friendly.

After completing thorough research and creating a PR launch campaign, she is planning to launch the business in the summer. She said: “I am focusing on launching my start-up business with all the information I gathered and created for my final major project at Northumbria with the help from my lecturers and peers.”

Phoebe started her scholarship at Fabric Academy in April and is looking forward to the future. She added: “I am continuing my marketing strategy programme which finishes in July and I am also searching for jobs associated with PR and Influencer Marketing, which I found was my strong point and main area of interest throughout my time at university.”