Odette Steele
Odette Steele joined NUA in 2022 as a Senior Lecturer in Textile Design. She is a Fashion Textiles graduate from University of the Arts London (UAL) — specialising in embroidery, embellishment, and print — and has gained valuable experience in other forms of Fashion and Textile design techniques.
Odette is committed to championing textile craft through various engagements such as artist talks, collaborations, and teaching. She completed her PgCert in Academic Practice at UAL, as well as gaining her Fellow in Higher Education Certification.
With a unique style and a visionary eye for detail, I am an Educator, Textile Designer and Artist. My creative practice focuses on highly artistic Fashion and Textile Outcomes. Within education, I facilitate theoretical and practical outcomes required in both Design and Technical classes. This teaching experience ranges from Foundation to Final years, covering areas of Fashion Design, Textile Design and Fashion Marketing.
My influences derive from my African heritage through the dynamic composition of pattern and colour. An individual design style is achieved through mixed textile media and techniques such as Embroidery, Print, Weaving, Dyeing or using embellishment to create a fusion of various materials that may conceive a luxurious handcrafted product.
This design identity as well as passion on the preservation, development and social responsibility in textiles and fashion, has allowed me to work both locally and internationally on artisanal collaborations. This approach encourages an investment into craftsmanship by strengthening the knowledge, shared practice, community building, environment and wellbeing in hand rendered pursuit to production.
As, BA1 Textile Design Year Leader at NUA, I will be shaping the curriculum and facilitating the development of the Textile Design 1st year students. Alongside contributing on BA2 and BA3 in specific areas of my practice and specialisms.
Practice
2021 – Exhibitor Chinese Visual Festival, Online, China
2020 – Awarded Shades of Noir and University of the Arts London, Teaching Within Grant to Complete PGCert in Academic Practice, London, UK
2020 – Exhibitor UK-China Contemporary Culture Festival, Chengdu, China
2019 – Feature Documentary Looking West to Chengdu: Intangible Cultural Heritage by British Artist, Chengdu China
2019 – Exhibitor Crafting Futures – Fangsuo Commune, Chengdu, China
2019 – Awarded British Council Crafting Futures Grant for Artist Residency Programme in China
2017 – Exhibitor Future Trends – The Africa Centre, London, UK
2017 – Exhibitor Africa Utopia – Southbank Centre, London, UK
2017 – Speaker: BBC World Service: Goethe: The Story of Colour, London, UK
2016 – Showcased Coidentity Collection – London Fashion Week, UK
2016 – Showcased Fashion Utopias – International Fashion Showcase: Somerset House, London, UK
2016 – Awarded Fashion Scout – ‘Ones To Watch’ Award, London, UK
2015 – Speaker: Sustainable Fashion Forum, Jakarta Fashion Week, Indonesia
2015 – Showcased Coidentity Collection – Jakarta Fashion Week, Indonesia
2015 – Awarded London College of Fashion, British Council and Dian Pelangi Residency Programme in Indonesia
Other Activities
2022 – FACE – Fashion Academics Creating Equality
2021 – Higher Education Academy, Awarded Fellow Status
You can see more of Odette’s work on her website odettesteele.co.uk
