Midlothian teacher’s Alzheimer's-inspired fashion collection to feature in Met Gala exhibit in New York

When fashion teacher Nadia Pinkney checked her long-neglected LinkedIn account last September, the last thing she expected to find was a message from one of the world’s most famous art curators.

The 31-year-old had been out of the fashion industry for several years and had found a new passion teaching pupils in the art department at St David’s High School in Dalkeith.

Back in 2016, Ms Pinkney had created a final-year collection for her fashion degree at Heriot-Watt University inspired by her family’s history of Alzheimer's disease.

The designs, which featured a distinctive print made using copies of real-life brain scans, turned heads at the time for their originality and the emotion they evoked.

The then 21-year-old was quickly snapped up for a job at the luxury textile brand Johnstons of Elgin.

But ten years later, having left the fashion world after Covid, the pieces she kept from the collection were stuffed in a box in her art classroom, occasionally pulled out to show her pupils different construction techniques.

So in September when she received a message on behalf of Andrew Bolton, the head curator of the costume department at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York - one of the most iconic museums in the world - she was utterly gobsmacked.

“It came through totally out of the blue. I was honestly about to delete my LinkedIn profile,” the teacher said.

Ms Pinkney worked with Alzheimer's Scotland researchers to create her graduate collection Remember Me Knot, which was inspired by her Great Granny’s experience of Alzheimer's | Supplied

Mr Bolton wanted to display some of the pieces from the collection as part of the institute's next exhibition, Costume Art, which explores the less celebrated aspects of the human body.

The opening of the exhibition is famously heralded every year by the Met Gala - arguably the most anticipated night in the celebrity calendar.

“I was in complete shock. I really thought it was a scam,” she said. “In my class I teach my pupils about the Met Gala, the big designers and Andrew Bolton at the Met.

“So him and his team reaching out to me was such a surreal experience.”

Reality soon kicked in when she realised one of the pieces the museum requested, a coat, was one of the items she no longer had.

The following months were a “total whirlwind” as she worked with her old university to remake the print and construct the coat, alongside planning her wedding, renovating her house and holding down her job.

Ms Pinkney remade some of the pieces from the collection from her classroom in St David's high school while her house was being renovated | Supplied

While her friends think the events of the last few months have been “hilarious”, and perfectly timed with the release of The Devil Wears Prada 2, she said for her family it has brought up a lot of emotion.

“My Great Granny was the main inspiration [behind the collection], and her son, my Grandad, is still alive,” Ms Pinkney. “Everyone is just like, wow, what would she have said about all this.”

She added: “They are very proud that this is where it’s going to end up, and that it can continue to raise awareness of the disease rather than sitting in a box.”

In 2016, she worked closely with Alzheimer's researchers to understand the disease and used the science she learned as inspiration.

The colour red, which featured prominently in the collection, was not only her Great Granny’s favourite colour, but is also used in brain scans of Alzheimer's patients to mark the part of the brain that is still working - the part that is still ‘them’.

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The designs also feature various knots and tangled materials, reflecting what happens to the brain’s cells when the disease takes hold.

After the exhibition, which opens to the public on Sunday and runs until next year, the pieces will be kept in the museum's permanent archive.

When Ms Pinkney first pitched the idea for the collection, she said everyone thought she was "crazy" | Supplied

The fashion teacher has been invited to the official opening night of the exhibition at the New York museum on Thursday, which she is attending with her mum.

“The dress code is festive attire,” she said. “I had to put it into ChatGPT to find out what that actually meant.”

She said the experience won’t feel real until she sees the exhibition for herself on Thursday.

Asked whether the recognition of her work has made her want to re-enter the industry, Ms Pinkney said it hadn’t.

“Everyone asks me this, but I absolutely, without a doubt, love my teaching job,” she said.

She added: “I had amazing experiences, but working with kids everyday and teaching something you’re passionate about is so much fun, whereas I was starting to lose that passion in the industry.”

The exhibition opens to the public on May 10 and runs till January 2027.