Institution
Belfast School of Art, Ulster University
Medium
Fashion
Graduation Year
Class of 2025
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I am Anna Finnis, a sustainable fashion designer from Derry, Northern Ireland, specialising in garment construction and quilting design. My practice is rooted in traditional techniques and a deep respect for materials, shaped by both personal experience and cultural heritage. I adopt a fabric-first approach, allowing the qualities of the materials I source to guide the creative process. This method encourages thoughtful design, ensuring that each piece of fabric is used with care, intention, and minimal waste. Through my designs, I aim to honour traditional textile skills while creating contemporary pieces that challenge the norms of fast fashion and celebrate the beauty of sustainability. My graduate collection called ‘The Violet Street Collection’ is a tribute to my late granda Mickey. The collection began in August 2024 during a deeply personal moment. I was clearing out my granda’s house on Violet Street, a space filled with memories. As I made my way through the rooms, I came to the final cupboard, one that had not been touched in years. At the back, folded with care, was a stack of bright, vibrant, and beautifully patterned fabrics.They were my great-grandmother’s curtains and bedsheets, lovingly preserved by my granda since the 1960’s. Discovering them was incredibly personal experience. These were more than just fabrics. They were pieces of history, rich with sentiment and memory. Breathing new life into them became my way of honouring my granda. One of the key techniques I used in this collection was quilting. I was inspired by the traditional methods passed down from my great-great-grandmother, who hand-stitched quilts using leftover scraps and even bleached flour bags for the backing. Her creativity and resourcefulness deeply influenced how I used quilting in my own work. That tradition is now a part of this collection, honouring the women in my family who came before me. The collection also draws visual inspiration from the architecture of opera and theatre houses from the 1890s to the 1910s, particularly from the Art Nouveau period. This influence shaped the silhouettes and design details in my garments. I was especially inspired to explore this connection after learning that my grandmother once worked in the old Derry Opera House, adding another layer of meaning to the project. Each outfit in this collection has been created from these original textiles. The process of transforming them into contemporary garments is rooted not only in personal storytelling but also in my commitment to sustainability. Upcycling and repurposing existing materials is central to my practice. I believe in preserving the stories woven into every thread and creating fashion that is both meaningful and mindful. This collection is a tribute to heritage, too memory, and to the beauty of giving old things new life.
