Technician

  • Technical Staff
Ali Byrne

Ali is currently a Technician in Fashion supporting FE Foundation courses, also BA (Hons) Textile Print, Fashion Design, Film and Theatre and MA Textiles across all years.

Ali Byrne

Bio

Ali studied Fashion and Textiles at Canterbury College of Art (now UCA). Her professional career began at Norman Hartnell, London, where she worked on garments for the Queen and Queen Mother, hand finishing hems, buttonholes and fastenings to the highest quality.

Ali’s background in pattern cutting spans over 25 years.  She has worked for a designer children’s wear company supplying to Harrods, a bespoke wedding dress company in Canterbury and for two major M&S suppliers as a children’s-wear pattern cutter and assistant to a senior designer. She has also worked as a sample machinist for a ladies wear designer, showing at London Fashion Week.

As part of a continuous improvement in her area over the last few years, Ali has developed a vast gallery of pattern cutting, sculptural draping samples, garment processes, fabric manipulations and textile sampling. Furthermore, she has successfully reinstated neglected knitting machines  and through her own research and development has a comprehensive display of samples and techniques for all students to engage in and exchange new skills and ideas.