Sustainable fashion is becoming more popular, with people choosing to shop on sites like Vinted and Depop instead of going for fast fashion brands. And Aoife Harvey is making her mark on the industry - as the 23-year-old from Derry takes her sustainable designs to the screen in a BBC show.
Aoife will appear on the second series of ‘A Stitch Through Time’, which returns on July 17. The designer told BelfastLive how her passion for sustainable design first started, and how it has since grown into something she is determined to make a career out of.
The designer says it all started while she was studying Art and Design at the NWRC in Limavady, and completed a UAL Foundation Diploma there. “In that foundation year, sustainability was getting big, and as a young designer you don’t have a lot of money [when] you’re trying to find ways to make clothes,” she said.
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“So, I started thinking about how you can take something people see as unusable and breathe new life into it. I take materials and deconstruct them so much that you don’t even realise it was a curtain or a parachute before.”
However, Aoife said her passion for fashion might have started long before then, judging by a recently-unearthed interview she gave after winning a competition when she was younger. “I said then, when I was aged eight, that when I grew up I wanted to be a fashion designer, which is so funny, because I thought this was something I decided on in further education,” she said.
Aoife’s success at a young age was an early sign of what was to come, as her designs soon got recognition after she started her degree. In 2021, she placed in the top three of the Longines Irish Champions Weekend Young Designer Award, and last April she took part in the filming of the second series of ‘A Stitch Through Time’, which will be shown on BBC Northern Ireland.
In the show, four up-and-coming designers compete in different challenges. Aoife will appear alongside designers AJ Tinsley, Annie Leone, and Giovanna De Bona, although the Derry woman will be the youngest featuring in the show.
“It was amazing to meet the other designers, and all of them brought different skillsets and things I’ve never seen before,” said Aoife. “I’ve always enjoyed constructive criticism, and it’s fuelled what I do, so being in a competitive setting and being judged was something I really enjoyed. I think it only makes you better.”
It’s clear the show was a great learning opportunity for the young designer, but it’s not the only time she will be showcasing her work to an audience this month. On July 14, Aoife will take her designs to the runway at Northern Fashion Week in Manchester, representing NI on a UK stage through her brand AH Designs.
She said: “I’ll be the only designer from Northern Ireland over there, and to be able to represent the North is class. There is so much talent here, and there is a big textile history here, especially for myself being from Derry [where] the Derry shirt factory [was].
“Over the last few years, everyone seems to have to go away to Dublin or England for fashion work, so to show the talent here and what we have to offer is amazing.”
It will be an exciting few weeks for Aoife, whose passion for sustainable fashion has now put her in the spotlight at a young age. The designer emphasises that her achievements stem from years of hard work, saying: “You don’t just get these opportunities for nothing. You have to go looking for them.
“I definitely felt lost [after leaving university], because there aren’t massive opportunities in fashion here or jobs to go into. You kind of think, all these people are going to come to you with work, but it doesn’t happen like that, or at least it didn’t for me anyway.”
Nothing was going to stop Aoife from following her dream, though, and as she starts to get recognition on a national level, there is no doubt this is just the beginning for the sustainable designer. What started as a far-flung wish when she was just eight years old has turned into so much more for Aoife - and she isn’t about to stop now.
As she put it: “I absolutely love this, and it wouldn’t fulfil me to do anything else. It is a slow process, but I have done some incredible things, and there are so many more good things to come.”
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