Five Irish designers who made waves at London Fashion Week
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.
Unmatched forces to be reckoned with, Irish designers did more than prove themselves at this season’s instalment. We have selected the top home-grown talents to know from London Fashion Week.
With ten years and the Independent Designer of the Year at last year’s Fashion Awards under her belt, Simone Rocha entered her second decade as one of London’s most important designers. In the courtly Honourable Society of Lincoln’s Inn (the first time the venue has functioned as a space for a fashion show), to a soundtrack that included a remix of Sinead O’Connor belting ‘Nothing Compares 2 U’, she continued to mine her Irish background for inspiration.
The mythical Oidheadh Chlainne Lir, or simply the Children of Lir, served as her primary inspiration as an elegiac mood pervaded blue velvet dresses encrusted with glistening crystal lozenges and whimsical taffeta dresses - the effect was regal and whimsical underscored by a sinister edge.
With the royal children of the myth in mind, Rocha’s cast of ethereal characters stormed the gloomy venue bedecked in ethereal, voluminous dresses with crinolines exploding with tulle and sheer shifts with swan embroidery.
Pearl and ruby detailing enriches dresses and long stockings and balaclavas decorated with crystals become the most covetable accessories of the season.
Despite Rocha’s penchant for finery, she is astutely practical in other areas: she leans into this pragmatism with beautifully cut black cargo trousers under black peplum tops, and sensible footwear in the form of ballet flats (albeit dripping with pearl accents). Biker jackets with a bustier detail have become a mainstay in her collections, further imbuing her feminine aesthetic with a punkish slant.
At her first catwalk show in two years, Robyn Lynch pushed her creativity and resourcefulness with a menswear collection that left everyone in the audience, especially the Irish contingent, eager for more. In collaboration with Columbia, Lynch upcycled 10 jackets from the mountaineering clothing brand’s extensive archive. Foldable rain jackets become cropped puffer jackets while an emphasis on tailoring showcased her technical prowess.
Sly details snuck into the collection — like the outline of Ireland embossed on buttons for denim, and intricately stitched on trousers using reflective fabrics. Four of her father’s old Dublin GAA jerseys were distorted by Synflux, a speculative fashion lab that uses artificial intelligence algorithms. At Lynch’s show, references to Ireland are meaningful and consistent but never trite.
The rapturous applause, endless whooping and hollering bestowed upon Lynch as she briefly emerged from backstage is a testament to her ferocious talent as a menswear designer. Vogue has even heralded her an ‘Irish Junya Watanabe’, a well-deserved comparison to the compelling Japanese designer who shows in Paris.
This star is on the rise.
Despite it being midday on a Monday, Justin Thornton and Thea Bregazzi, the married duo behind Preen took us to Heaven Nightclub, the globally recognised gay nightclub in Charing Cross. Punctuated by a performance by the English National Ballet School, the balletic movement brought the clothes inspired by 1980s club culture, the New Romantic, and dance to life.
Thornton and Bregazzi, who is half Irish (her mother is from Mullinahone, County Tipperary), cobbled together their 80s influences with sustainability in mind, splicing together offcuts from previous seasons, surplus and leftover fabrics. A hooded puffer jacket adorns a check blazer, a bomber jacket and blazer become one, a slinky dress features a troika of cutouts. Other highlights include argyle knitwear and patch-worked bomber jackets that gave proceedings a homespun feel. Committed not only to their environmental impact, Thornton and Bregazzi work with new charitable initiatives every season in order to give back to different communities. Heaven Nightclub as the location makes plenty of sense when one considers this season’s chosen charity, The Outside Project, which is the Britain’s first LGBTIQ+ shelter and centre led by LGBTIQ+ ex-homeless along with homelessness professionals and activists.
For their LFW debut, Banshee of Savile Row took over Mayfair’s Messums Gallery for a salon show and screening of their new film. Ruby Slevin and Rocco Tullio, the design duo behind the partly female-led womenswear venture based out of London’s historic tailoring street and Dublin’s United Arts Club, are elaborating on the possibilities of the suit. When the pandemic first hit two years, the wardrobe staple was proclaimed dead. Slevin and Tullio disagree.
As the first women’s tailoring brand on Savile Row, Slevin and Tullio are ideally poised to rethink what tailoring can mean. “The rules for women are different. You could almost say bespoke suits women more,” says Rocco. Ruby adds, “we want to break every rule”.
With a focus on versatility and separates, rather than full suits, in sumptuous fabrics like seersucker, linen, velvet, corduroy — and with thousands more possibilities available — the pair arrived at something utterly modern for autumn/winter 2022: safari suits, belted with a notched lapel and flared trousers, lean black velvet opera coats, and a work suit in black denim which is made from the finest Loro Piana cotton and linen blend. Entirely made by hand, cut from sustainably sourced cloths from England and Italy, Banshee of Savile Row is asserting that “there’s so much more [to the suit].”
“We wanted to create a considered collection that is the antithesis of the claustrophobia we’ve been collectively experiencing over the last couple of years,” said Slevin. “A bold return to glamour, the garments were conceived as a way of breaking free, endowing the Banshee woman with power, confidence and an appetite for fun.”
The pair enlisted Lee Malone to capture the collection in the sprawling gardens at Birr Castle Demesne, where the collection comes to life amidst the verdant landscapes.
In place of a formal presentation, Sharon Wauchob hosted intimate appointments in her London studio where clients and travelling press from across the world can peruse the rails of her latest collection of sumptuous fabrics and elegant silhouettes.
Sensuality and restraint prevail in the Derry designer’s latest outing that consists of 24 hand-crafted looks inspired by a boy-meets-girl narrative and the timeless quest to achieve the highest calibre of luxury.
“I’ve always understood the energy and effort that goes into making luxury clothing. As soon as you touch something of higher quality, you can see what sets luxury apart,” said Wauchob, whose impressive pedigree includes a four-year stint at Louis Vuitton.
It’s a core value that reveals itself in the expert, textural use of fabric. A floaty draped dress from a silk jersey is brushed with a metallic finish that resembles lurex. A sleeveless cream coat is made from bonded wool, a responsibly-sourced alternative to supple sheepskin but with the same effect.
Few observe the tension between masculinity and femininity like Wauchob as she effortlessly melds gossamer silk slip skirts and sheer undergarments alongside slick leather tuxedo jackets. Heavy satin slip dresses are effervescent and light, while contrasting wool tailoring acceded with metal details reflect the ever-present tension of gender in our wardrobes.
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