Catalina Negara: Giving Materials a Second Life

The London-based designer turns discarded materials into one-of-a-kind fashion pieces, guided by instinct, movement, and reinvention.

Before fashion, Catalina Negara worked with flowers. Today, the Moldova-born, London-based designer applies the same sensitivity to colour, composition, and movement to her upcycled garments. Working with vintage clothing and found materials, she creates one-of-a-kind pieces that challenge conventional ideas of value and beauty.

Ahead of her presentation at the Fashion District Showcase in London on June 2, Negara speaks with IRK Magazine about intuition, transformation, and finding creative potential in the overlooked.

IRK: You moved from floral design into fashion and art direction. What made you feel it was the right moment to leave flowers behind and fully enter fashion design?

Catalina Negara: It would be easy to say that I left flowers behind, but that’s not really how it happened. There wasn’t one single moment of clarity where I suddenly decided to stop being a florist and become a fashion designer. I kept coming back to fashion as a passion, and I felt ready to explore it more deeply, even without knowing exactly where it would lead or what form it would take.

What made it feel like the right moment was realising that I didn’t need to have everything figured out before taking that step. I wasn’t certain where fashion would lead me or what my practice would eventually look like, but I knew I needed to explore it. There was a sense that if I didn’t follow that instinct, I would always wonder what could have happened.

So for me, it wasn’t about leaving one creative world for another. It was about allowing myself to grow into a new chapter and seeing where it could take me.

IRK: How much of your floral design background still shapes the way you construct garments today? Do you still think in terms of arrangements, balance, and natural flow?

Catalina Negara: Floristry definitely sharpened my eye for colour and composition. Working with flowers gave me the freedom to experiment with combinations I might never have considered otherwise. You quickly learn that colours, textures, and forms that seem unexpected can create something incredibly harmonious when you bring them together in the right way.

I can also see the influence of floristry in the way I position elements within a garment. Sometimes the details might appear random at first glance, but they’re carefully placed to create balance and guide the eye across the piece. That’s very similar to how a floral arrangement works.

What has stayed with me the most is the sense of movement. Flowers are living things—they bend, shift, and respond to their environment. I try to bring that same quality into my garments. I want them to feel alive on the body, to move and transform with the person wearing them rather than remain static.

IRK: You build your designs around upcycling and discarded materials. How do you decide what’s “worth saving” and what becomes something entirely new?

Catalina Negara: I honestly believe that almost everything is worth saving. There isn’t a single item in my house that’s completely safe from being repurposed. I’ve reused drapes, upcycled vases, glassware, carpets, my partner’s old trousers, earrings, plastic bottles—you name it.

For me, the question is rarely whether something can be transformed, but how. I think almost anything has the potential to become something new if you’re willing to look at it differently. Because of that, my home often ends up looking like a collection of clothes, materials, and unusual objects waiting for their next life.

I buy around 90% of my wardrobe from charity shops and Vinted, which gives me the freedom to experiment constantly. Working with second-hand materials removes a lot of the pressure to be precious about things. It encourages curiosity, play, and problem-solving, and that’s where some of the most interesting ideas come from.

Rather than deciding what’s worth saving, I’m usually looking for hidden potential in things that other people have overlooked.

IRK: Nothing in your practice feels static: your floral design pieces are designed to move, distort, and react to the body. When you start a piece, are you designing for form first or for movement?

Catalina Negara: If I’m honest, my process is very intuitive. When I start creating a piece, I rarely have a fully formed idea of what I want it to look like. Usually, I begin with one key garment or material and then respond to it as I work. I cut, add, reshape, and experiment. Sometimes I make decisions a little too quickly and end up having to work around them later. But that’s part of the process.

I tend to build a piece gradually, one step at a time, allowing it to reveal itself rather than trying to force it into a predetermined outcome. The materials often guide me as much as I guide them.

One thing that’s really important in my process is creating physical distance from the work. I’ll often step back, sometimes literally squinting at it, so I can stop focusing on individual details and only see the overall shape, movement, and colour. Looking at it from a distance helps me understand what’s missing and where the balance isn’t quite right.

It’s actually very similar to how I approached creating floral installations. Giving yourself space to observe allows you to see the work more clearly and often reveals the next step.

IRK: Accessories seem central in your work, almost like a final resolution to a look. How do you approach accessories within your work, and what role do they play in the narrative?

Catalina Negara: Ahh accessories, my favourite part. I love accessories, it can change an outfit so much, it changes the intention and direction of a look. When I started making accessories from old clothes, it allowed me to add personality to my outfits. I always loved asymmetry in accessories and you can definitely spot that in the looks that I prepared for this show.

I’ve always seen accessories as something that can completely shift the reading of a piece. They’re not secondary for me, they often set the tone of the entire look. A small change in placement or proportion can completely transform how a garment is perceived.

I also think accessories create a conversation between the person wearing them and everyone around them. They’re a way of communicating something personal without saying anything directly. There’s an intimacy to that.

For me, they definitely play a central role. They’re never just finishing touches—they carry intention, and they add that final, subtle layer that completes the look, even if it’s slightly unexpected or asymmetrical.

IRK: Coming from Moldova and now working in London, do you feel your background influences how you see materials, waste, and transformation in fashion?

Catalina Negara: I come from a working-class family, and we often had to be very mindful with resources. But there was always a strong sense of gratitude for what we did have. I think that has quietly shaped the way I approach materials today.

When money is a consideration, you naturally learn to look at objects differently. You pause before discarding things and start asking whether they can serve another purpose, whether now or later. That way of thinking becomes instinctive over time.

It’s not necessarily something I consciously apply in my work, but it stays with me. It influences how I slow down, observe materials, and consider their potential before deciding what they become next.

IRK: When you begin a new one-of-one piece, what usually comes first for you: the material, the silhouette, or an image in your head?

Catalina Negara: It all starts from one piece. Sometimes I’m drawn to the fabric itself, sometimes it’s the silhouette that catches my attention. I love working with vintage tailored pieces, and when I’m sourcing for a new project, I’m always looking at the quality that already exists within the garment.

Sometimes I do begin with a clear idea and try to translate it into reality, but it almost always ends up evolving into something different. In a way, it becomes better than what I initially imagined, because I allow myself the freedom to explore and respond to what’s in front of me.

That process of letting go of control is really important for me. It’s what allows the piece to develop its own identity rather than just following a fixed plan.

At its core, my work is about transformation and intuition. It’s about slowing down enough to see what something can be, rather than what it was originally intended to be. And in that space between control and instinct, the work finds its own language.

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