“I'd been a web developer for ten years and wanted to build my brand. I went from engineering software to engineering soft-wear.”
Sonia Grant – Fashion Design student
From Software to Soft-wear
Moving from software engineering to fashion design may at first seem like a huge career pivot, but for Sonia Grant, it makes perfect sense. Growing up, Sonia would enjoy watching her father solve problems with a hands-on practical approach while her mother was an avid painter. Sonia also enjoyed drawing and sketching with a natural “aptitude for drawing a photographic likeness”. Little did she know that both her mother’s creative leanings and her father’s problem-solving skills would eventually be the lessons most valued in her fashion design future.
“Fashion was how I expressed myself growing up. I didn’t really follow trends, I just wore what I liked, which was often pretty different from everyone else. In my teens and early twenties, I was always upcycling and modifying my own clothes. Sensory-first design matters most to me. It’s about how a fabric feels. And I have a tech background, which for years I didn’t think had anything to do with fashion. It turned out to have everything to do with it.”
After a decade of working in tech, Sonia’s creative urges came calling and she decided she wanted to get serious about fashion design. But she also knew she needed to do it well. This involved learning skills and gaining an education in the field.
“What actually pushed me to enrol was wanting the qualifications to back it up. If I was going to launch as a fashion designer, I wanted to do it properly.”
When Old Meets New
As a natural born creative, Sonia has a voice and style in her work that comes from deep rooted influences. Borrowing from ancient Celtic traditions, Sonia is embracing imagery and symbolism from her Irish culture. And her new design eye has found fresh ways to introduce these symbols to fashion.
“When I first started the brand, it was mostly sacred geometry and healing symbols, and that led me to Celtic symbolism.
It's changed a lot. Before, I'd have a design fully formed in my head and just work from that. Following a proper design process turned that around. The exciting part is you don't always know where the process is going to take a design, and it often ends up somewhere I wouldn't have thought of myself.”
A creative mind is easily and often inspired and will often produce an abundance of ideas. Inspiration is after all, everywhere, all around all the time. But what separates a freeform artist from a designer is the process of refining a design. Sonia has many creative outlets, but when it comes to clothing, textiles, and even motif design, the first idea is almost never the last one.
“I also didn't expect how many new ideas the experimenting would generate. I tried textile processes I'd never have reached for on my own, like using 3D gloss to build a raised symbol on silk, and I even had a go at making my own buttons, which hadn't occurred to me before. It left me with a whole list of pieces I still want to make.
I also started using 3D design software during the diploma, which really suits how I want to work. It fits my slow-fashion, waste-not mindset, because you can work a design up and refine it digitally before you commit any fabric to it, so you're not making sample after sample.”
Leap of Faith
And with learning comes challenges. It is a universal truth that the best work almost always comes when the creator steps out of their comfort zone. There is an energy in the fear of the unknown that drives the imagination. It is also where new skills are learned and new discoveries are made. Sonia is a prime example of someone who learned about herself when she too took that leap of faith.
“I learned I do my best work when I'm slightly out of my depth. The course kept putting me there, with techniques I'd never have reached for on my own, and each time I came out surer of what I can do.”
As Sonia progresses through her studies, she is eagerly pursuing her fashion goals as well as opening up to new and unexpected avenues. In general, learning will always open the mind to new lessons and unexpected knowledge, but creative learning can be like osmosis, where inspiration just floods in. Sonia began with a clear idea of where she wanted her studies to take her, but like a sponge, she is always ready to welcome new avenues to explore.
Now she is deep in her collection, which has also evolved.
“I started with the 6 Faces of the Morrigan, driven by my love of texture, mixing motifs and surfaces that had no business together. Then I switched to GODDESS.exe: six Celtic goddesses built like executable software, the same base layer with a different symbol for each. It was the simpler, more scalable route, and it's where the Soft-wear concept came from. Looking back, that pull toward simple and scalable moved me away from the texture obsession that's the core of my work, and that's the thing I'd protect next time.”
Sonia’s brand is already well underway with https://somedose.com/ and an ethos of “prescription only fashion”. Using her love for Irish culture and a fun play on the word “dose”, there is no telling what spells she will cast next.
Note: "Dose" by definition means a prescribed amount, but it is also used in Irish slang to mean a chronic condition that will not resolve without intervention.
Are you ready to explore your own Creative Future?
Whether you’re looking to change careers, develop your creative skills, or turn a passion for design into something more, the Fashion Design Courses are designed to help you build practical, industry-ready skills from home with personalised tutor feedback and flexible online learning.
Explore now and discover where your creativity could take you.
