In a special feature for Totally Dublin, we take a rare glimpse behind the scenes at NCAD’s hallowed fashion department to speak with some of the freshest creative minds in Irish fashion. We selected four promising students to talk us through their collections and aspirations in the final weeks before this year’s hotly anticipated degree show.
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What are the ideas and processes behind your final collection?
My two loves are fashion and art history, so a lot of my inspiration would come from history and the past. I went to an exhibition in Collins Barracks, it was an Irish military exhibition, and they honed in on the ladies of the Easter Rising, the Cumann na mBan. Everything seemed to be more personal with them, they made their own uniforms, and that got me really interested in this subject. I was looking at the uniforms and the difference between the masculine and the feminine, the juxtaposition of the uniform that was for war but was made in the home, and handmade, and that’s very feminine. I spent days in the archive in Kilmainham Gaol, and the way that I feel about it is it’s like I’ve met these women, as they had the uniforms, pictures, letters, and artefacts, so it went far more personal and that’s where I wanted it to go.
In terms of the collection, when I was experimenting with the masculine/feminine juxtaposition, I started buying up men’s tailored jackets from charity shops, in keeping with the military theme. I put them on the stand and stood back to see what natural shape they took and then began to deconstruct them. Another key part of the collection is my research on Irish lace, which Ireland was the largest manufacturer of around that time. It’s also interesting because it’s industrial but it’s made in the home. What I wanted to do was to re-create some of the old patterns in a modern way, so I sampled with hand cutting, transfer printing and finally decided on laser cutting. I’m using a motif from a lace crochet pattern from a company that was based in Youghal, and have played around with repeating it, and with its scale. I’m also playing around with colour, inspired by WWII medals, dying fabric and painting stripes to make it a bit softer and more eclectic.
How are you finding your final year at NCAD?
It’s been brilliant, I really enjoyed it. It’s been stressful, but it’s taught me a lot – over my three years here NCAD has taught me to work hard doing something that I love. This year has been different, in previous years you were alluding to a finished piece but now you have to make the finished piece, so the bits that I love like the sampling and the exploration, has to get shortened down in order to get the finished product done on time, but I suppose that’s how the industry works. It’s strange, I literally have not had a weekend off in ages, but I’m enjoying it so I feel really lucky to have found that.
What are your plans after graduation?
I’m going to take a trip to New York for a couple weeks and then in September I’ll be moving to London where I’m going to be starting an internship at River Island. It’s a three month contract that I was awarded for winning the River Island project that we do here in final year – hopefully they want to keep me for longer than three months! I’m really excited just to get started working in industry and doing this for real.
Words: Honor Fitzsimons
Images: Jocelyn Murray-Boyne
