Fashion forward: Innovate and create for success

Paul McLauchlan on the most promising names in the next crop of Irish design

Making her CREATE debut, Fiona O'Neill's work explores surrealism and optical illusions

After celebrating 10 years of spotlighting emerging Irish design, Shelly Corkery, the fashion director at Brown Thomas, considered the future.

CREATE, the annual showcase enters its second decade on Tuesday with the objective of pushing for progress, a guiding principle that forms the basis for the buzzy slogan behind this year’s event. As the pandemic recedes and ‘business as usual’ looks increasingly fruitful for businesses, Corkery and the wider buying teams came together months ago to ask ‘who’s next?’