Mother of talented fashion designer who died on Hayling Island keeps legacy alive through art

Anna and Emmanuel at her favourite place; Southbank - early 2019. Picture: Rita Wright.

Portsmouth Coroner’s Court heard last week that fashion designer and artist Anna Wright was found hanged at her father’s home in Sea Front last August.

But now her mother Rita Wright wants to ‘share her art with the world’ with exhibitions in London.

Rita, 67, said: ‘She was beautiful and brilliant, and complex and needy.

‘She was born sensitive and anxious but she had a fantastic childhood.’

The inquest was told Anna had battled with several mental health issues, including anorexia, bulimia, anxiety, PTSD and depression, since the age of 12.

Fashion designer found dead at Hayling Island after long battle with mental heal...

‘She loved art and I believe that was what kept her alive for 37 years,’ added Rita, who is a writer and counsellor.

Anna aged 17 - happy at The Surrey Institute of Art and Design. Picture: Rita Wright.

Throughout her life, Anna had attended rehab for her alcohol dependency, used mental health services and had a close relationship with her GP but Rita says she continued to draw and design throughout all of her dark times.

Rita, who lives in Wimbledon, said: ‘All she ever wanted to do was to draw. She had such a capacity for detail and was born with a gift.’

Anna attended the Surrey Institute for Art and Design and achieved first class honours in her BA degree. At 21, she was chosen out of six students to have a catwalk fashion show at Battersea Park, where she chose the theme of the Elephant Man.

‘She told me she felt like she could relate because she felt like a freak. That stayed with me,’ said Rita.

Anna fashion illustration which led to her working for BBC World Service and designing a collection for Topshop. Picture: Rita Wright

Anna also worked on illustrations for BBC World Service and moved to India to design with Topshop before moving to Paris to follow her dreams as an artist and ‘she never felt more alive’. After the November 2015 Paris attacks, Anna and her boyfriend moved to Brittany but then her life, according to her mother, ‘started to go downhill’.

‘I plan to start the Anna Wright Foundation to help families left behind after suicide. The money would be used to help them get free counselling,’ said Rita.

Rita also hopes to curate an exhibition in spring 2021 at Southbank and Battersea to display the clothes, illustrations and poems created by Anna.

Rita added: ‘There is a fine line between a mind that’s incredibly disturbed and a mind that’s brilliant.’