Biography

Katherine Soucie (BAA Fashion Design; Dip. Textile Arts; BFA, Printmaking/Textiles; MAA Visual Art, Textiles) is a British-Canadian award winning designer and artist who specialises in transforming textile industry waste, specifically pre-consumer waste hosiery, into new textiles, clothing , accessories, sculptural forms and installations. She studied Fashion Design in London and Toronto, Ontario, Canada before furthering her studies in Textiles and Visual Art in Vancouver. Her studio specialises in textile waste design methods informed by upcycling, zero waste, mending, and regenerative methods of re-making.

Throughout her practice, craft applications are (re)imagined through waste materials and combined with obsolete and discarded industrial sewing/textile machinery to produce unexpected, emergent forms, constructions and environments. Her work is motivated by an investigative hybrid approach to waste materials where an exploration of processes lead to alternate routes of discovery and sustainable material pathways. The intention of her work is to honour, value and bring identity to the discarded in a way that reverse engineer modes of production and regenerates the role of craft within art, design and creative industries.

Her textile waste research and outcomes has resulted in an extensive body of work that has been commissioned for international clientele in fashion, costume, set design, architecture, dance/performance and visual arts. Her work has been sold and exhibited in Canada, USA, Hong Kong, China, Japan, Australia and UK.

Ms. Soucie is the recipient of several international awards - BC Creative Achievements Award 2006 (Canada), shortlisted for Niche Award 2007 (USA), and recipient of the International Design Green Award 2008 (USA). She is a noted public speaker, juror and educator holding positions such as Visiting Professor in Textiles at the Welch School of Art, Georgia State University 2013 – 2014, Program Director for Fashion at LaSalle College Vancouver 2017 -2019, BA/MA Lecturer in Sustainable Textiles, University for the Creative Arts 2022-2024 and currently holds a position as Sustainability Short Course Tutor at Central Saint Martins/UAL, London.

She is currently based in London, UK.

photo by Ian Sheh