Stephanie Smart, Fine Artist

Stephanie Smart began working with paper after discovering a museum display of a paper kaftan. Made for a sultan to wear into battle, the garment was entirely covered in intricate text and drawings. Between 2016 and 2017, she served as artist-in-residence at an Elizabethan mansion in Sussex. There, she showcased her first three-dimensional collection of garments – made entirely from paper and thread – inspired by historical fashion and the lives of the building’s former residents.

She went on to create The Regency Wardrobe collection, which debuted in 2021 at Firle Place, Sussex. The exhibition subsequently toured to the Chertsey Museum, Worthing Museum, The Royal Pavilion in Brighton, and Jane Austen’s House in Hampshire, attracting more than 150,000 visitors. The bonnet, Filigree, is a featured piece from this collection.

Smart is currently developing a new collection in association with Historic Royal Palaces for exhibition in 2027. In parallel, she is collaborating with the Northampton Museum to create a collection of 30 shoes for a 2030 exhibition. Each piece will be inspired by a distinct historical era between the 1720s and the 2020s, as well as a different bird. Halcyon Nights, inspired by the 2020s, and Columbidae, inspired by the 1900s, are two of the first five completed works.