As each graduate season demonstrates, LSAD’s cohort of creative talents are fully on par with their European counterparts.
The college garners coverage from Vogue Italia at each end-of-year showcase, whilst comfortably retaining the title of sole Irish participant in Graduate Fashion Week. Such accolades more than suffice in making Dublin’s institutions sit up a little straighter — LSAD Fashion’s “40% technical, 60% design” ratio, affirmed by department head Anne Melinn, has produced an assemblage of stand-out graduates this season.
Their final-collection materials stretch from traceable-fabric shopping treks abroad to local partnerships with Limerick weavers. Chloe Joyce’s “A Pack of Mutt’s”, heavily inspired by Wes Anderson’s Isle of Dogs, pairs minimal-waste production with part-natural, part-synthetic textiles, fashioning a “funky streetwear collection for women” whilst also tackling heavier topics (canine mistreatment and the consequences of pollution). Holly Rose Twomey drew influence from her film-making father to create “Le Voyage Dans La Lune”, a deeply-celestial ode to the eponymous 1902 film and its French maker, George Melies, which led her to win Student Designer of the Year at the Irish Fashion Innovation Awards.
Orla Kelleher’s Surrealist fantasies come to life in “Wacky Tacky Party”, where “outrageously fun and kitsch” garments appear good enough to eat, yet somehow maintain a strong sense of wearability. Irrespective of where these design innovators end up — be they future trend-forecasters or independent makers — there’s no doubt their first impressions have packed a serious punch.
Graduate Fashion Week takes place in London’s Old Truman Brewery, from Sunday 2 to Friday 7; @chloejoycedesign / @hollyrosefashiondesign / @orla_k_______
Words: Amelia O’Mahony-Brady
