Bernie Murphy Knitwear

Bernie Murphy is a textile artist, fashion designer and educator based in the seaside town of Buncrana, County Donegal. A former garment technologist in the manufacturing industry, she creates her current contemporary fashion designs using local tweeds. From an early age she watched her mother and grandmother knitting and sewing for family and friends, which fostered her interest in becoming a textile artist.

The main focus of Bernie's contemporary designs is to capture the natural environment that surrounds her - its unpredictable beauty and spirit - and to reflect the textile and design skills that have been handed down across the generations in her homeland of Donegal. Her greatest inspiration comes from the wild Donegal coast - the blues and grays of the Atlantic ocean, where the fields and hills suggest patchworks, lines and patterns, where the barren lands and peat bogs blend the russets of trees and heather with the neutrals of sheep fleeces and stones… All combine to suggest the structures, colors and textures for her garments.

Her artwork explores new approaches with unconventional materials, and the body is at the heart of her practice. The use of innovative techniques, materials, form and context explores the crossover between art and fashion in simple ways to stimulate both physical and cultural associations within those who encounter her design work.