Sophia Fenlon

Senior Lecturer
Textiles in Practice

Sophia Fenlon is a practising textile designer and lecturer, holding a BA in Textile Design for Fashion from the University of Brighton and an MA in Textiles from the Royal College of Art. She is also a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

Her work is characterised by a love of offbeat color, contrasting textures, and unconventional material compositions, resulting in playful and often subversive designs. She employs jacquard, dobby weaving, and mixed media textile techniques to bring her dynamic research themes to life, pushing the boundaries of the loom through the distortion of scale, pattern, and repetition.

With extensive experience in the fashion textiles industry, Sophia has worked in fabric sourcing, design, and development. As a freelance designer, she has collaborated with clients including Alexander McQueen, Christopher Kane, Lululemon, Calvin Klein, Knoll, Cos, The Row, and Esteban Cortazar.

Her work has been exhibited internationally at industry trade shows and events such as Dutch Design Week, Premier Vision Paris, Indigo Salon & Maison D’Exceptions, Premier Vision New York, London Craft Week, Denim Days, London & Paris Fashion Week, and the Yugen JTex Showroom in Paris.

In her role as a Senior Lecturer in Design, Sophia is Placements and Exchanges Co-ordinator, Level 4 Year Leader and part of the Exhibitions/ External Shows team on the Textiles in Practice programme.