Trust The Legehness

Anna is South African, she was born in 1980 in Pretoria. She spend many holidays in the Kalahari on her grandparent’s farm in Namibia. She was taught needlework and sewing by both her mother and grandmother and was encouraged to keep herself busy, which she did by either drawing or scrutinising the fashion designs in her grandmother’s Burda magazines. Her grandmother was her first style icon. With censorship during Apartheid and a strict upbringing Anna was exposed to little of the outside world but being naturally curious she soon ended up labelled as a trouble maker. Frustrated with the schooling system she dropped out at 16 and finished school through correspondence. She went onto study Fine Arts in Pretoria whereafter she moved to Cape Town in 2001 to study Art Direction. Anna worked for 7 years in the top advertising agencies in Cape Town and had a side hustle of knitting toys and objects. She was asked in 2010 to style an editorial of her knitting for Elle Decoration SA, after which she was employed as the decor editor for the magazine. This launched her career as a stylist. In 2012 she became a full time freelance stylist, costume designer and set designer building up a formidable international client base. Anna has always made time for personal projects between her commercial jobs. She explores a wide range of themes but the one constant in all her projects is a bold and deliberate aesthetic that is made up from a mix of memories, fantasies and influences throughout the years. During COVID many of her clients asked her to Art Direct and Direct remotely for them. Setting the wheels in motion for the next phase of her career Anna naturally stepped into the directing role. She is very excited about the prospects of commercial work but as always will make time and space for personal projects. She still loves the desert.