Five Irish designers who made waves at London Fashion Week

Paul McLauchlan profiles the homegrown talent who stole the show in London

That Irish designers set the tempo for London Fashion Week is no secret. In the absence of big players such as Burberry, Alexander McQueen, and Victoria Beckham, Irish designers like Simone Rocha have become tent-pole names at the five-day event.

LFW is home to Paul Costelloe’s feminine doyennes and RIXO’s zesty cocktail dresses in geometric prints, sequins, and velvet, inspired by the 1930s golden era of Old Hollywood glamour prove that Irish fashion comes in many guises. There’s Richard Malone, who showed a quieter, more intimate collection on the official fashion week platform on Tuesday afternoon as he’s in the midst of moving studios and will present a new runway collection in September, in addition to bringing his Making and Momentum exhibition to Wexford in April. There’s Colin Horgan, an ascendant talent from Kerry with the gumption necessary to compete in the big leagues of fashion with his wonderful, avant-garde creations with a knife’s edge. He showed a film on Tuesday morning to unveil his latest work.