A Little Linen Fashion at the Ulster Museum
A Little Linen Fashion at the Ulster MuseumI’ll be honest: running commissions alongside our own webshop has left me feeling rather worn out this year. But my final commission of the year was for somewhere very close to my heart—the Ulster Museum.
Only a few minutes down the road from our family home, it was one of my childhood haunts. It’s also where I spent my university work placement, shadowing Kim Mawhinney, then Curator of Applied Art and now Senior Curator of Art at National Museums NI. Little did I imagine back then that I would one day be creating pieces for their shop.
The museum has inspired so many of my designs over the years, from butterflies, Celtic brooches and cooking pots (my cauldron) to some rather familiar characters: Peter the Polar Bear, the Edmontosaurus and the owl I call our Parlour Owl. There is always something to catch my eye, however many times I visit.
So I was absolutely thrilled when the museum asked me to create three miniature Irish Linen interpretations of treasured pieces featured in their major 2026 exhibition, Ashes to Fashion.
The exhibition celebrates fifty years of rebuilding the museum’s remarkable fashion and textile collection following the devastating fire at Malone House during 'The Troubles' in 1976. Decades of painstaking collecting have brought together an extraordinary collection spanning centuries of fashion, from historic garments to contemporary couture.
My three pieces reflect that lovely breadth: a dainty antique shoe, a billowing dress and a showstopping hat by Irish designer Philip Treacy.
The hat was certainly the most striking of the three to recreate. It’s such an iconic piece in the museum’s collection. And its centrepiece is a compact disc! There was another unexpected personal connection: I had modelled Philip Treacy’s hats (well, hat) in Dublin for Brown Thomas many years ago. A rather lovely meeting of different chapters of my working life.
For the hat, I sourced a beautiful vintage Irish Linen in soft black from the archive rolls of linen designer John England. I wanted the material to have its own provenance, making the little pieces all the more special.
Translating these pieces into miniatures, with Irish Linen, embroidery and hand-stitched embellishments, was both a challenge and a pleasure. There is so much to consider when capturing the character of an object on such a small scale. The sequins and flashes of colour worked really well in the end, as did the tiny metallic lines representing wisps of feathers.
I didn’t quite manage the hoped-for deadline of the exhibition opening. Finding enough time and skilled hands for these intricate little pieces has been one of the challenges of this year. The museum shop did, however, stock my existing little Irish Linen Sparkly Purses, Quilted Handbags and shimmering Princess Shoe for the launch, so I still felt part of it.
I’m delighted to say that all three commissioned pieces are now available in the museum shop, too.
For someone who grew up wandering these galleries, it feels rather special to have a little part in their story.
Katie xox
