Fashion journalist Sarah Magliocco reports from Paris Fashion Week, where an event championing Irish fashion and design painted the Eternal City green.
We are not just the land of saints and scholars; we are the land of style.
As Seán McGirr beings his second year as is Creative Director of Alexander McQueen to a close, Jonathan Anderson settles into his role as the creative director of Christian Dior and designers such as Paul Costello and Simone Rocha continue to dominate the fashion space, there is no question that Ireland’s influence is felt in the industry.
However, it is far from easy to climb your way up the ranks of such a competitive, complex and creatively demanding industry, and for designers and fashion fanatics in Ireland, international acclaim can feel out of reach.
Luckily, Irish people are known for taking the saying ní neart go cur le chéile very seriously, and platforms have sprung up across the country that support Irish and Ireland-based fashion creatives in their endeavors through community, events and collaboration.
That platforming can literally take Irish designers to new lands, as is the case with the Tech Powered Luxury “Live From Paris Fashion Week” event, which took place in Paris last week. Ireland’s creative connections with France go back quite far, from Eileen Grey’s time studying and working in Paris in the early 1900s, to Róisín Pierce’s various France-based fashion accolades and recent chic collaboration with handbag brand Pòlene.
“Live From Paris Fashion Week” is an annual celebration of Ireland’s work on an international stage, incorporating fashion, beauty, jewellery and design. Taking place in the Irish Embassy on Avenue Foch, the setting spoke to the elegance of the event. Aoife McNamara, Heintz, Irelands Eye, Triona, and Roisin Linnane were showcased in a fashion show which saw models striding through the adjoining rooms of the Irish Embassy’s stunning Rococo style space.
The show, styled by Jess Colivet and Anne O’Shea, kicked off as singer Morgana’s vocals reverberated around the gilded walls, with the crowd of attendees encircling the musician who stood just feet from the Irish harp symbol, featured proudly in the centre of the floor.
While the fashion show was a highlight, there was much more to unfold. Rachelle Cunningham was speaking on the night, in conversation with Tech Powered Luxury host and Ireland Fashion Week founder Ashley McDonnell. The women are both Galway natives who have found second homes amid Paris’s booming fashion scene, and the conversation reflected their love for Irish design.
Rachelle is a fashion illustrator, a painter and all-round creative who has worked with the likes of Chanel, Vivienne Westwood, Nina Richie and more. Born in Dublin, but living in Galway for much of her early life, she spoke about her incredible career as an artist and fashion darling. While painting is her passion, she is launching her own fashion collection, which is being treated much like an art collection, as it so should be, with limited quantities, each piece numbered and bespoke.
Her collection includes skirts sewn from old curtains that once hung in an Irish castle, corsets hand painted with romantic scenes, and luxurious robes illustrated all over in a bold print of her own paintings, which speak to the roles women are held to in society, breaking those boundaries and the strength of feminine community.
Her own struggle with endometriosis has informed the messaging of her work. It was a long journey for Rachelle: “When they operated on me, they told me it would take an hour. It was five hours. I had one of the worst cases they had ever seen. Endometriosis grew all over my intestines, my bladder, everything and I think once I realized that that I had been right for ten years the rage was extraordinary,” she said, draped in a robe of her own design in one of the embassy’s gilded rooms.
“That’s when I really went all out with my artwork and I was almost like an f-you to all the people who told me that it was just in my head and my imagination. My imagination is the most beautiful thing about me, how dare you make me hate it?”
Showcasing among the spectacular high ceilinged chambers of the Embassy were a number of Irish brands championing their work outside of the fashion show, including Chupi and Maya Grisham. Among them was Naomi Fitzgibbon, with her vintage shop Vintage Finds You opening 12 years ago as a response to her friends and loved ones constantly borrowing the vintage treasures from her personal wardrobe.
“It’s a very small collection, it’s online and as I’ve grown, my customers have grown with me over the years. I’m absolutely passionate about Irish vintage, and I have brought a little bit of my archive to Paris, all pieces that are very precious,” she explained, floating a hand over her rail of carefully chosen pieces by Irish designers from the 1920s up to the 1980s.
“It’s really hard to find Irish vintage pieces. So when I find one, I really cherish it. I do a little bit of history to find out who the person was. It’s very hard to find the information, so when I do it is like finding the history of the piece – what era it’s from and what was going on at the time in Ireland, it really fascinates me. The structure, the couture pieces that I have are just as beautiful as something you would find in Paris, so it really means a lot to showcase them here.”
Attendees included fashion, beauty, tech, finance and music industry insiders and beyond, from Ireland, France and many other beautiful corners of the world. As guests mingled, DJ sets from Christian Tierney and Cian Duignan’s collective Volleyball set the tone for a stunning night in the City of Lights.
While the glamour of the night shone, the community felt dazzled. Each person had shown up to celebrate Irish design, reinforcing Ireland’s position within the global luxury landscape.
While Ireland has a rich history in design, and the current generation of creatives in the space is proving that despite our small nation we are laden with talent, events like this prove that there is so much more to come if we just carve out the space for it.
The views expressed here are those of the author and do not represent or reflect the views of RTÉ.
