Abeni Carvalho

Abeni is a woman of many talents. Since graduation she has secured funding to develop her own childrenswear brand, Project Panda. She works as a freelance creative director at the fashion label, John Zack. And if that wasn’t enough, she also works as a freelance graphic designer 

She was able to kick-start her own business after she won a place in Ravensbourne’s Incubation unit, which aims to nurture promising start-ups.

For Abeni, Ravensbourne gave her the freedom to choose what she wanted to do. Other courses she looked at focused on primarily on buying and didn’t offer the variety available at Ravensbourne. The open-plan design and integration between courses stood Ravensbourne apart from the rest.

Highlights from Ravensbourne

Ravensbourne helped Abeni to grow as a person. The ongoing support she received from her tutors helped increase her confidence in her abilities.

One highlight from her course was the chance to visit Sri Lanka to learn about manufacturing and fabrics. Another memorable moment was being nominated for several awards at Graduate Fashion Week and having her work praised by key figures in the fashion industry. 

Discussing her time at Ravensbourne, she said:

"I loved my time at Ravensbourne and on the FBBM course. The wide range of industry knowledge provided by the FBBM course and lecturers provided me with all the skills and the confidence I’ve needed to set up and run my own clothing business, as well as get a job in the industry."

Abeni’s advice to other students is to trust in your ideas and take a chance on yourself. She concludes, ‘Work as hard as you can and don’t cut any corners. Every piece of work you do will relate to a world challenge you will one day have to deal with in your career.’