About

Image: Courtesy of Cross Cashmere

Katie Braid is an award winning fashion educator and illustrator based in Edinburgh, emerging from the industrial echoes of Newcastle. She has spent the last decade working within woven textiles and fashion. Producing illustration and creative work for Scotland's oldest remaining artisan tartan mill, working with brands such as Ashley Williams, Charles Jeffrey, Arbikie Highland Distillery, Rolls Royce and Celine.

Braid’s work aims to explore the uneasy alliance between her working-class roots and the perfection of fashion. Armed with a palette of grime and grit, she conjures figures that are awkwardly cropped, their imperfections not mere blemishes but acts of questioning beauty ideals often associated with the industry. Through her immediate, mixed-media approach, Braid stages an uncomfortable conversation, forcing us to confront the cracks in the facade, the vulnerability beneath the couture, and the unspoken dialogues between tradition and trend.

In 2024 Katie's illustrative stop motion work won the 9th FIDA 'Fashion Illustration and Digital Arts', Reel and Shorts Award . With her work exhibited at The National Arts Club New York and Institute Marangoni Paris.

Alongside her studio practice Katie works at Edinburgh College of Art. Edinburgh University as a Fashion Illustration and Portfolio Teaching Fellow.

Selected Client List: V&A Dundee, National Museums of Scotland, Diptyque, Harrods Beauty, St. James Quarter Edinburgh, The Modern Calligraphy, Luath Press, Frontiers Women, all/WITHIN Magazine, RIXO, Sunday Girl Magazine, The Little Living Room, Edinburgh University, Amelia's Magazine. Openly supported by brands including Elena Velez, Charles Jeffrey Loverboy, Matty Bovan, Cambridge Satchel Company and Fashion Scout.

Exhibitions

2024 “SSA 126th Annual Exhibition, 30x30”,Group Exhibition, Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh, UK

2024 “Unseen Fashion Faces & Figures”, LCF x Cass Art, Group Exhibition, London College of Fashion UAL, UK

2024 “Best of the 9th Awards”, Group Exhibition, Fida Arts Gallery, UK (catalogue)

2023 "50th Anniversary of Le Grand Divertissement Fashion Show Versailles '73", Group exhibition in association with Emanuel Ungaro, Nando & Elsa Perreti Foundation, Halston, Ultrasuede and Fida Worldwide, L'instituto Marangoni, Paris, FR

2023 "Fida in Paris", Group Exhibition, Fida Arts Gallery, UK

2022 "With Love Halston", Group exhibition in collaboration with Halston, Tiffany & Co and Rigaud, The National Arts Club, New York, US (catalog)

Awards

2024 FIDA Worldwide Fashion Illustration and Digital Awards (Reels and Shorts Category), Award Winner

2024 People of CAHSS Recognition Award (Creative Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences), Edinburgh University, Rising Star Award Winner

2023 50th Anniversary of Le Grand Divertissement fashion show Versailles '73. In association with Nando & Elsa Perreti Foundation,Halston, Emanuel Ungaro, L'instituto Marangoni and Fida Worldwide, Paris, Award Winner

2023 FIDA Worldwide Fashion Illustration and Digital Awards (Culture Vulture Category), Commended Finalist

2022 FIDA Worldwide Fashion Illustration and Digital Awards (Still Life Category), Commended Finalist

2022 FIDA Worldwide Fashion Illustration and Digital Awards (Poetic), Shortlisted

2021 FIDA Worldwide Fashion Illustration and Digital Awards, Shortlisted

2009 Andrew Grant Scholarship Award

2003 Samling Foundation Visual Arts Residency, Keilder Forest, UK