Fashion & Textiles alumna on freelance success, sustainability and the allure of Cornwall
03 October 2025
Alice Selwood is a multi-talented creative. Beginning her Falmouth journey on Textile Design BA, she now teaches across the fashion and textiles courses and recently completed her MA in Sustainable Fashion.
From designing interiors for Lamborghini and Land Rover to exhibiting her work at Harrods and the National Portrait Gallery, Alice has forged an illustrious freelance career from her studio in Cornwall. She also supports emerging designers in her role as Senior Technician, and through her master’s studies has begun to explore and innovate with biomaterials.
In our latest episode of Ones To Watch we visited Alice in her Cornwall studio, where she chatted more about her successful freelance career, her research into biomaterials and her love of rural Cornwall.
"I'm Alice. I'm a textile designer specialising in digital embroidery. I graduated from Falmouth University 10 years ago in Textile Design and have spent that time being a freelancer. Since then, I've just finished my MA in Sustainable Fashion.
"So, when I first graduated, I won a whole load of awards for my graduate piece. And from that I had gathered enough money to be able to get a purchase loan on my very expensive digital embroidery machine. I started down the fashion route and then when someone suggested 'oh, I'd really love this as an interiors piece', I then started producing my cushion and soft furnishing collections and it's kind of snowballed since then.
"I have been featured in Vogue. I have worked with automotive companies, Land Rover and Lamborghini. I've worked with a couple of fashion companies, and Harrods as part of an Art Partners exhibition.
"I've never felt the need to work in a city. I've had the ability to be able to do all my work here in Cornwall still and then enjoy going out for a surf after work.
It's a really exciting, really creative space. The students are so inspirational. The equipment is phenomenal. And you get to be right by the coast, and it's just beautiful.
"The textiles course itself allowed me to really work on my technical ability because I was introduced to so many weird and wonderful bits of equipment. I was actually introduced to digital embroidery maybe 6 months before I graduated. So it was great being able to experience loads and loads of different techniques."
"My work is shifting ever so slightly. So, I decided to do an MA because I just wanted to look a bit more in detail at the sustainability element of my work. I mean, I produce everything in house and if I don't, it's going to be as local as possible. So, sourcing fabrics locally, threads, and even having a mini cottage industry going with seamstresses helping me make stuff. But I wanted to look more in detail at the whole environment of sustainability.
"So, the MA was great and it's introduced me to biomaterials. I've been doing loads and loads of research since then. I love organic matter and things like that. And I've always really enjoyed building and creating. My work's never the same. It's always changing. And I love it!
"I actually moved back to Falmouth to go and teach on the textiles and costume courses. And they have a real sense of actually making sure you go out and get a job at the end of the day. It's a really exciting, really creative space. The students are so inspirational. The equipment is phenomenal. And you get to be right by the coast, and it's just beautiful!"
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