Meet Anna Doyle | Tarot Artist and Fashion Designer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Anna Doyle and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Anna, is there something that you feel is most responsible for your success?
Tarot! That’s how it all started. I was living in China as an expat hoping to travel Asia and find myself. I found the depths of loneliness and challenges like never in my life before. After getting married as a very young woman at 22, and divorcing 23, I really thought everything else in my life was going to be easy. I moved to China at 25 years old and I that’s when I really started struggling with my mental health. I was lonely, I had no therapy outlet, I hated being alone while suffered with intense social anxiety. But then, I met Pippa (who I call my angel). One night, she invited me to go to her’s to paint her bedroom. When I arrived, feeling anxious about going out alone to meet this new friend, she told me she had forgotten she had agreed to go to this expat womens circle doing a tarot night and invited me along. I thought…A womens circle? I having struggled to connect with women and girls my entire life, I’ll admit I was so nervous. I’d never had my tarot done before so I really didn’t have a clue what it was all about. And so we went, and the energy and support for each other amongst me and these women, was like nothing I had ever experienced in my life. I read someone else’s tarot for the first time and unbeknownst to me, that night shaped how my brand The Weirdo Tarot began three years later. I started spending time with myself and actually enjoyed being alone. I started to take my tarot cards out with me and use them as an ice breaker in situations when small talk made me nervous. Then years later, people would ask me if I charged to do tarot. I always said no – I didn’t feel comfortable doing that, I felt it to be an ‘age of Pisces’ way of thinking and the transaction just didn’t feel that was my calling. I wanted to teach people about tarot, so it would go further (age of Aquarius!), and started to combine the things I loved most – the first being tarot, the next, fashion. I started to experiment with materials copped from charity shops, dying clothes on my my mums kitchen stove, pulling a tarot card for each piece I made and based my fashion design on that card. And so that’s how it all began…I represent the rawness of tarot with the rawness of my style, using materials that grow with style the more they are distressed and worn, and use second hand towels and denim for all my handmade garments. It’s really important that my garments are multi use and I love how I can both skate and dry myself after a cold dip in the Irish Sea! (Even in the winter!) So I suppose out of all this, the most important factor for my brand is how it has so magically and positively affected my mental well-being, and I hope it does for others too.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
Look, I don’t have a lot of money, I can’t sit around saying I am making a ton of profit, I barely make a profit at all and things take time to make, especially because it’s just me who does absolutely everything for my business, no one else. I have another job that’s my sole income that I work full time in and work on my brand The Weirdo Tarot using every single little bit of spare time I have. But if I can make things for people and put my spare time into doing it despite the question of whether I’m going to make money or not, or if I can afford to give things away for free when someone is less fortunate, then I do, every time. I believe that energy attaches itself to clothes. That’s why I love buying second hand clothes, or making my own. They just feel different. Clothes that are churned out mindlessly for the point of money? It just doesn’t work for my mind or my body when I wear them. And the thing is, I love fashion. But when I wear something I’ve made from a tea towel I bought from a charity shop, it makes me feel SO good. And I’ve never been to fashion school, I started making my own patterns out of baking paper. But everything I do, I do it based on how it is making me feel, and not whether it’s going to make me a lot of money. Of course that in itself is also a challenge. Sometimes I battle with this capitalist mindset of success synonymous with wealth. And I get that little voice in my head telling me what’s the point, what if my business never ‘does well’, just give it all up and do something ‘secure’, so that I, as a woman of 29 can build my future safely like I was always taught. Of course there is a challenge in reminding myself that I can define my own successes, and not let society do that for me. I think that’s what I am proud of. Persevering, and coming out the other side of those challenging thoughts and expectations. If wearing a tea towel makes me feel that good then so be it! And I believe because I made it for no other reason than love, then how is it going to make someone else feel when I make one for them? It’s all about catching feels for me! And I’m proud of that!

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Okay so I live in Liverpool in the UK, and the fun things for any tourist to do in this city are easy to find. Things that I love to do? Monday…hang out in my studio in the Baltic Triangle with my studio sister Kirsty who also has her own unreal fashion business @xtsy.tm a true sustainable scouse lass who makes literally the sickest bum bags ever. Depending on the tide, Tuesday I’d take them in my old school van I call The Bobbin, a blue VW LT28 1991 Campervan and go and swim in the Irish Sea at Leasowe Beach in The Wirral, across the river Mersey (even if it was winter!) and camp their to check out the moon and do some tarot. I’d take the long way back to Liverpool on the Wednesday, and stop off at my mums to see the baba aka Lolly (my German Shepherd who also is another angel in my life that I do not know what I would do without), and we’d go for a walk up the hill my mum lives on to see The Tree, an ash tree who is also another love of my life and a massive inspiration for my art. Thursday I’d call into lark lane en route back to Liverpool and go to open mic night in Milo lounge, ending up in Blondies for a cocktail or two! Friday I’d spend the day in the back garden making art with paint pens or spray paint with @greencollarclothing someone who taught me the magic of painting directly onto my garments and opened my eyes to all kinds of new styles, maybe make some video content with @vincenzo_tiggiano and his workwear podcasts and videos for #workwearwednesdays …Saturday night hit Liverpool town @melodicdistraction in the fabric district and then, probably head down to some sick warehouse party in the docks, to an event ran by the gorgeous @women_wednesday_lvp lasses who throw safe parties for women and LGBTQIA+ Non-binary community! And then Sunday of course, cook a proper home cooked Sunday Roast with a pint of Guinness.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
Pippa! For sure. If it wasn’t for Pippa, I fully believe I wouldn’t be here today. And now, she’s living in Thailand and is working really hard as a newbie in quantum healing, and her expertise is in accupuncture. @Passionfruit.samui is her instagram handle!

Instagram: @theweirdotarot

Other: Website domain is www.theweirdotarot.com and will be launching soon!