Rebecca Evans

Following a BA (Hons) in Fashion Design and an MA Fashion and Textiles from Nottingham Trent University, Rebecca's career as a designer began at Berghaus, (part of the Pentland group) and has since included in house design roles at Rohan, Salomon, and Musto. Rebecca now works as a freelance consultant with a broad range of clients such as Finisterre, Wolverine, Shackleton and Kingfisher PLC. as well as a number of start ups and other consultancies.

With over 18 years of industry experience, Rebecca works across all areas of the design process from design direction, and range building, sourcing and selecting fabrics through to producing detailed technical drawings and working on the development of prototypes ready for production.

Rebecca’s design philosophy has a strong focus on purpose and durability. She aims to create functional apparel that is fit for purpose and has genuine longevity. This ethos is integral to ensuring that a product’s negative footprint is as low as possible.

Alongside freelance consultancy, Rebecca has a 'microbrand' Utilifolk. The purpose of Utilifolk is to to take apparel that is no longer wanted or usable in its current state, and re-work it into new garments; often using technical clothing, outdoor gear and workwear and re-purposing them into more everyday clothing that still has a functional edge.

Students can benefit from Rebecca’s broad ranging experience, learning how to design for function and purpose, considering how a product can and should be used, how technical fabrics and construction techniques affect performance, using test data and end-user feedback to refine prototypes; whilst at the same time considering implications for end of life and circularity.