LUCY Richardson has had a eventful year, to say the least. She started the year as the only Brit studying a fashion degree at a Spanish university, and enjoying some ‘remote work experience’ with Reflections.
Then the pandemic hit Spain, the university was told to close down for a minimum of two weeks – and the Spanish people she knew ‘were getting crazy about the virus’ – so Lucy flew back to Britain. Her flight turned out to be less than 24 hours before Spain went into full lockdown. She was told to self-isolate at her parents’ home in Sheffield for two weeks in case she had caught Covid-19 on the trip back to Britain. Before she had finished her self-isolation, Britain went into full lockdown… but Lucy was in the final year of her three-year course and needed to complete her final project in order to graduate in June. So, she completed a final collection of fashion outfits – despite major problems getting fabric during the pandemic – in Sheffield, sent it ‘virtually’ to Marbella and did, indeed, graduate. However, the graduation ceremony this summer was cancelled, although she hopes to return to Spain at the end of this year for a possible graduation ceremony in January 2021…