Kate Crilly
Textile Design for Fashion and Interiors BA Hons
Bath Spa University
Specialisms: Sustainable Fashion/Textiles / Textile Innovation/Textile Art / Textiles - Print/Embroidery
Location: Bristol, United Kingdom
Kate Crilly
First Name: Kate
Last Name: Crilly
Specialisms: Sustainable Fashion/Textiles / Textile Innovation/Textile Art / Textiles - Print/Embroidery
Sectors:
My Location: Bristol, United Kingdom
University / College: Bath Spa University
Course / Program Title: Textile Design for Fashion and Interiors BA Hons
About
Kate Crilly is an artist and textile designer, specialising in embroidery, print and material innovation.
Working with discarded materials, including unsellable charity shop garments, she develops innovative methods of deconstruction and reconstruction—transforming textile waste into new, scalable surfaces and forms. Kate’s work integrates traditional and digital techniques to propose circular, adaptable alternatives to linear fashion systems.
Kate has a sustained interest in our emotional connections to objects. Her paintings of old toys, packaging and household detritus explore how objects hold memory and how we value one over another. Creating connection through storytelling, nostalgia and colour, Kate aims to provoke discussion about our relationship with waste.
Checked Out is a textile collection that investigates innovative solutions for disassembly, material separation, and recycling within contemporary fashion systems. With the aim of developing a fully sustainable practice, I researched textile waste-processing methods and collaborated with local charity shops, repurposing garments deemed unsellable. By embracing material limitations and using them as a driver for design, I developed a cohesive collection through experimental making. Processes included shredding fabrics to create new composite materials, unravelling knitwear, printing onto reclaimed jumpers, and producing bio-fur from nettle fibres. The collection questions how value is assigned to textiles and garments, particularly those considered waste. By utilising nostalgia as a tool for emotional connection, Checked Out aims to reframe discarded clothing as meaningful, adaptable materials with the potential for regeneration and reuse.
Competitions
