Sophie Parry- BA (Hons) Fashion Design and Technology
Welcome Home
Sophie Parry’s creative practice explores the relationship between emotion, identity, and lived experience through fashion and visual storytelling. She is particularly interested in how clothing can communicate psychological experiences and personal histories beyond appearance alone. Through research, styling, textile experimentation, and image-making, Sophie aims to create work that feels emotionally honest while remaining visually impactful.
Her project Welcome Home investigates the emotional aftermath of war and the hidden vulnerability that can exist beneath strength. Inspired by her father’s experience of joining the military at sixteen, the project reflects on the long-term emotional effects of conflict and the difficulty of returning to ordinary life after trauma. Through this work, Sophie challenges the stereotypical image of soldiers as symbols of resilience by exploring themes of isolation, emotional suppression, memory and identity.
Throughout the development process, Sophie worked innovatively with both fabric and image manipulation techniques to communicate the deterioration of memory and emotional stability. She experimented with sublimation printing to distort and layer imagery directly onto fabric, creating faded and fragmented visuals that reflect blurred memories and psychological conflict. She also used laser etching to burn and distress surfaces, symbolising emotional damage, erosion and the lasting impact of trauma over time. Structured silhouettes, military fabrics, and protective outerwear represent discipline, endurance, and survival, while transparent layers and distressed textures suggest fragility and exposure. Her collage work further reinforced the feeling of fragmented memory and internal tension, allowing the concept to become both deeply personal and universally relatable.
This project has strengthened Sophie’s understanding of concept development and encouraged her to become more experimental with textiles, mixed media and visual communication. Moving forward, she aims to continue creating concept-driven work that combines fashion with emotional storytelling, particularly through themes connected to identity, psychology and social experience. Her ambition is to develop a career across fashion design, creative direction, and visual communication.
