There were seven parts to the show, including 2nd and 3rd year students’ capsule collections; River Island denim collection, and Persil ‘Red’ competitions. As well as the 4th year Menswear, Textile, and Fashion Degree Collections. The show featured the best part of 250 pieces, so obviously I can’t post them all, but here are a couple of highlights / favourites.
3rd Year Fashion – Capsule Collections
Chain detail, (nicknamed the Jellyfish collection) from Katie Earley
This exhibition is definitely worth a look. I dropped into the Harry Clarke lecture hall at NCAD, Thomas Street today for a quick look at the ten graduate pieces. I ended up staying for over an hour, trying things on and chatting to Amanda Grogan. One of the ten designers showcasing her collection in the exhibition.
See that’s the thing that kept me. Last years graduate show was a simple showcase of 23 pieces from 23 textile and fashion graduates. This year’s show is about each fashion graduates collection, as a whole. There is also footage of the graduate fashion show on loop and plenty of information about each graduate and the inspiration behind their collections.
This year’s graduate collection as a whole is called 10/10. As in ten students for 2010, and it’s an amazing showcase for the fresh talent that is coming out of this country. Above L-R; Charlotte Gallagher, Olivia Malloy, Silé Ó Shea (River Island Bursary Winner) and Amanda Grogan.
Above L-R; Vraja Lílá, Alan Taylor, Julia Doherty and Charlotte Gallagher.
Above; Pieces from Amanda Grogan’s “Cut, Sealed and Cauterized” and Averil Blakely’s, “Hydrophilic” collections in more detail.
On a really exciting note, Amanda was telling me that her and fellow graduate Averil Blakely had entered an international competition that will be held in Madrid in July. Mittel Moda, “is one of the most sought-after and well-known fashion competitions at an international level“. It is working with 620 schools of fashion design in 66 countries, promoting the exchange and comparison of international creativity. These two graduates will be judged, along with 21 other finalists, on July 1st; the winner will show in the Milan Fashion Week (!).
EDIT: News just in, Irish Times Monday July 5th: Amanda Grogan wins the coveted prize of €10k and the chance to show her collection at Milan Fashion Week at the Mittelmoda competition in Milan.
Image via Irish Times.com
The NCAD Graduate show and designer sale, is on at the Thomas Street venue until Monday June 20th. For all info and opening times go HERE. Or become a NCAD Gallery Facebook fan HERE.
I have been very lucky to be involved with this years Nokia Young Fashion Designer Award. I took part in a talk last night at the exhibition in Powerscourt Townhouse, organised by Spy. I chatted about what it’s like to be a blogger, how I got started and answered a heap of great questions from fellow Dublin bloggers and people who are interested in starting their own blog. It made me realise that although it is still quite an underground phenomenon in Ireland, blogging is on the increase here. The US and European countries like Sweden, the Netherlands and Germany are really at the forefront of the blogging world and the prospect that Ireland is getting involved is really exciting.
It was a really amazing experience, nerve-racking naturally, but getting out and meeting real, rather than virtual people was so refreshing. Not that on-line contact isn’t really rewarding, but it was great to have an excuse to get dressed up and make and effort. Every blogger knows the comfort typing away at home, slurping tea and wearing your dressing gown. (For warmth, you understand…)
The people I spoke to had various queries about writing and running blogs; mostly about building followers and which platform to use. I was really lucky to have chosen WordPress; of course all platforms have their pro’s and cons but I just felt straight at home with this one. The wordpress forums are amazing and an invaluable source of support and information. There are some really knowledgeable people who post on there and I know I wouldn’t have been able to get the blog just as I like it if it wasn’t for the advice I was given so generously on there.
They also wanted to know how bloggers get inspiration. In my experience I just post about things that I really love, because it’s my blog and I’ll cry if I want to. I think it’s that, that makes blogs different to magazines; they don’t rely on sales and therefore any content is completely the authors choice. I know the ones I really love are so appealing because the author has a certain ‘voice’ which makes them individual.
Speaking of blogging about what you like, I’m a sucker for a fashion designer’s moodboard and this year’s NYFDA finalists’ were incredible. They show just how talented the designers are; having an idea for a dress / design is one thing, executing it well, is something altogether more impressive.
Designer, Debi walker graduated from York College with a degree in fashion, before being accepted into Central St. Martins, London to do a Post Graduate in pattern cutting. Her first job in fashion was in tailoring before she took part in the first season of Project Catwalk, hosted by Liz Hurley. Judges and mentors included, Ben de Lisi,Julian McDonald and Lorraine Candy. Debi made it to the final with two other contestants and showed her own collection at London Fashion Week 2005. Since then she has designed for Liz Hurley’s swimwear range, Miss Selfridge and is now working for Asos. She’s making her first ever trip to Dublin this week to help judge the 20 finalists designs at the Nokia Young Fashion Designer Awards. She took a moment to answer a few questions from this very appreciative blogger.
Whisty: Hey Debi, thanks for taking the time to chat! Can you tell us about landing your first job in fashion, working for a London tailor?
Debi Walker: Donal Campbell was the name of the shop; it’s really high-end; it’s like Saville Row but for women basically. He sold to “ladies of London”, high society women; Winston Churchill’s granddaughter was one of his customers. When I look back now I think, “Yeah, I learnt so much working with him. He was 70-odd years old so he literally knew everything and everything had to be perfect and precise. It’s completely different being at college and then actually going to work for somebody like that; learning the technology behind really classic, simple designs.
W: You then took part in season 1 of project catwalk, I watched it recently on YouTube and you seemed to handle it all really well.
DW: I look back now and I cringe. What was funny at the time was the amount of people who would write on websites, “Oh she’s being really rude!” Lots of people would write good things but lots of people would write bad things. My brother would call me and say, “Oh you’ve got to read this one”.
W: But you made it to the final 3 meaning you were able to show at London Fashion Week,. That must have been incredible?
DW: That was brilliant. Having a collection shown at London Fashion Week was a really good experience. It was the very first Project Catwalk so I had no idea what I was letting myself in for.
W: Afterwards you started working in retail and most recently you designed a collection for Asos?
DW: Asos Africa just launched 3 weeks ago and practically sold out on its first day. So that was really good, it’s really exciting when you put all that hard work in. The director [of Asos] came up to me and said, “We’re going to have to take it off the site.” I was like, “Oh my God… why?” He said it’s nearly sold out; it’s really good when someone says that. We’re currently working on the second Africa hit at the moment. Hopefully that will launch in July we’re doing the production and everything out in Africa at the minute.
W: So it’s kind of like your first collection since showing at LFW?
Yeah kind of; I mean it’s the Asos label, for Asos and I’m part of a big team and we all have an input into things.
NYFDA
W: So the tables will be turned and you’ll be doing the judging at NYFDA have you any idea what to expect?
DW: I’ve tried not to think about it too much because I think you need to go into things with an open mind and just wait and see what designs people come up with. People forget the blood sweat and tears that goes into creating a design. I know firsthand what it’s like to put a design together and how much work goes into it.
W: Will you find it hard to be a judge?
DW: I know what it’s like being judged, I think you’ve still got to be quite encouraging. Whether it’s something you like or you don’t, everyone has different opinions on things and I think that’s what you’ve got to remember. You might think something’s amazing but there might be another judge there that prefers something else.
W: Have you been allowed any sneak peeks?
DW: I haven’t no. We get shown everything on the day (Wed 24th March) and have a chat with each of the designers about their designs and how they’ve gone about things. I’ve been told a rough outline of what it is. I think until I get there I just don’t know what it is that I’m going to see, to be honest.
W: Do you think basing a design on Nokia’s OVI.com it sounds like quite a tricky challenge?
DW: I do yeah, but in a way it’s good because I know what it’s like to have a difficult challenge set for you and a really weird brief. With Project Catwalk, one of our first challenges was to go shopping in B&Q and put a dress together.
W: God… I must’ve missed that one, it sounds horrendous!
DW: Yeah I was. They didn’t tell us where we were going, they just took us to B&Q and we had a £50 budget and literally 10 minutes to run around with our trolleys. We piled them up with what we could buy with that budget and then made a dress out of it at the end which was a bit random.
W: So what you just grabbed some chicken wire and tarpaulin?
DW: Ha-ha, yeah and I went straight for the shower curtains which was a really bad idea actually, it really didn’t stitch very well.
W: But surely your knowledge of pattern cutting must have come in very handy?
DW: Well I thought that at the time, but actually no.
W: There are 20 NYFDA finalists, which sounds like quite a lot of designs to judge, how will you decide what to look for?
DW: I think that now I’ve been working in retail for a few years I think I’ll be looking for something that’s quite commercial as well. I think it’s easier to do something creative than something really wearable. I think it’ll be about that balance really. About something that is innovative and creative but still wearable. I don’t really know what to expect.
W: I know last year was just really good fun, is that important?
DW: Yeah, I think it’ll be nice to see that again because you get so caught up with being commercial it will be quite nice to see young designers just being really creative again. It will be nice to see that.
W: Before you go, have you got any tips for the contestants?
DW: Be truthful, be confident in your designs and don’t be too bolshy!
The Nokia Young Fashion Designer Award exhibition takes place from Thursday March 25th to Sunday March 28th at Powerscourt Townhouse, D2. See the Facebook page for more details. All images are of the most recent Asos Africa collection.
Joanne Hynes, one of Ireland’s leading fashion and jewellery designers, has taken on the challenge of mentoring the student finalists in this years coveted Nokia Young Fashion Designer Award. Last years awards saw hundreds of fashionable types gather in the old Habitat building on Dame Street to see NCAD student, Aoife Gallagher, win the prestigious award having been mentored by Irish knitwear designer Tim Ryan. The fashion event was definitely one of my favourites in Dublin last year, the atmosphere in the room as well as the quality and originality of the designers’ collections made it a fantastic event.
This years students met their mentor over breakfast at the Morrison Hotel last week as she shared design tips and advice. One piece of fashion advice she gave was, to divide the price of an item of clothing by the number of times you think you will wear it, to make it a worthwhile purchase. I love this piece of advice, I was only saying to a friend earlier today, that there is nothing better than paying a little bit more for something to find yourself still loving and wearing it years later. I have a beautiful Versace top that I bout about 12 years ago that I now estimate to have cost me 0.07p. That’s what you call a worthwhile purchase.
Of the collaboration with the awards, Joanne said, “I am extremely excited at the opportunity to mentor these young designers. I love hearing their ideas and helping them transition brilliant thoughts into works of art. I am very much looking forward to seeing what [they] come up with. The motivation and creativity of this year’s finalists is exceptionally inspiring”. It sounds as though this years event is going to be yet another fantastic show, I can’t wait to see the designs, let alone the final show pieces. Photo: Joanne Hynes with model Yomiko in one of the designers pieces.
The inspiration for this years designs is www.ovi.com, Nokia’s information portal.
I dropped in to Off The Rails Live at the RDS amid a biblical rain storm on Friday night. Mock ye not dear stoppers-by because, from humble bloggers to big name designers, it was a darn high-fashion event. I absolutely would not give up the chance to sit at the same catwalk as Mr. John Rocha, and it was a pleasure to see him accept the award for Best Designer from Jodie Kidd. Who incidentally was wearing possibly the flattest shoes in the world and was still taller than everyone else, including the models in heels who wore some of Rochas designs. (pictured).
It was the following fashion show, however, that blew us all away, produced by the insanely talented Lee Lapthorne, the show was a visually vibrant affair. Themed around the 6 senses, the show was presented against a backdrop of light displays and each ‘sense’ was interspersed with dancers. It was one of the most impressive fashion shows I have seen in Dublin; to be honest I was expecting the usual array of House of Fraser pieces and maybe a touch of high street. Although this was the case in part, the rest was so much more than that.
From independent Irish boutiques like Liberty Blue Boutique and NC Kilkenny to on-line boutiques like mytights.com and Bitching and Junkfood; From well-known Irish designers like Tim Ryan, Kate & Ava, Joanne Hynes and Aideen Bodkin to international designers like, Bora Asku, Rachel Freire, Avsh Alom Gur and Manish Arora. All the elements came together to create looks that were fiercely fashion-forward.
What really made the show for me was the inclusion of pieces from this year’s collage graduates; Katriona Flynn, Gerard Hancock, Joanne Power, Suzanne Acton, Clare Geraghty, Demelza Buckley, Tammy Larkin, Lynn Allen and Heather Finn. Including incredible, pieces from Ireland’s fashion future made the show the stand-out event that it needed to be. With fashion hierarchy present, it would nothing short of shameful had the show not included such vibrant, thought-provoking creativity. I loved it oh, and if anyone knows where I can buy a pair of Lion King leggings please, do holla.
I love blogging, as is probably apparent. One thing I love about it, (among many) are the peaks and troughs of inspiration. People often ask me if I ever have trouble finding things to write about, but it’s on a very rare occasion that I get writer’s block. Fashion is so changeable and subjective that not only do I have dozens of opinions on it but there are thousands of other people writing about it too. There are dozens in Dublin alone; I was asked to have a look at this blog this morning and I was blown away by a post about a creative event at Filmbase last week. The event was called For the Love of Live(FTLO), where 9 ‘creatives’ were invited to create a one-off piece live at Filmbase on November 4th, turning the venue into a studio for the evening.
It was fashion designer Aimee O’Beirne’s work that was featured on said blog and caught my eye. She started with a pretty ivory-coloured, embellished shift dress and covered it in black paint as an audience watched on. The result was fantastic.
Aimee O’Beirne has been causing a stir over the last two years or so having been a finalist at the Nokia Young Fashion Designer of the Year 2007. She graduated from LCAD having won Bulmers Light Most Cutting Edge Award, at the LCAD fashion show in the same year.
I’m not sure what to look at here, the amazing sartorial-art or the uber stylishness of the designer herself. Loving those oversized specs and undercut.
I love the way the paint has run down the model’s arm, when I first saw it I thought it looked like ribbons that were part of the dress itself.
23 outstanding outfits, by 18 NCAD Fashion & Textile graduates are currently on display at the newly refurbished NCAD building on Thomas Street. The building itself is one part disused fire station and one part glass fronted modern architecture and is situated opposite the Vicar Street venue. When I was there this afternoon, I watched as people stopped in the street and stared through the giant glass windows at the designs inside. The gallery space is very simple with each design hung on a mannequin and the atmosphere is created by a television on one wall showing interviews with the young designers.
One of the first stories I covered on the blog was the exciting and inspiring DIT Fashion Show, one of the finalists of which was Clare Geraghty with her urban-inspred “Fractions Collection”. She then went on to become a finalist in the highly prestigious Nokia Young Fashion Designer Award shortly afterwards. The latest news is that her talent and creativity for fantastic design have caught the eye of the peeps at the Circus Boutique. Her “Lumerie” collection will go on show here until the end of the month. Her pieces range in price from €50 – €350.
As of today River Island Bursary winner and NCAD graduate, Rebecca Flanagan has been let loose on the window displays of River Island’s Ilac Centre store!
Rebecca’s fabulous ‘Resin’ collection, that won her the covented prize, will be on show in the windows for the next week until Friday, June 19th. You go girl!
I love blogging, as is probably apparent. One thing I love about it, (among many) are the peaks and troughs of inspiration. People often ask me if I ever have trouble finding things to write about, but it’s on a very rare occasion that I get writer’s block. Fashion is so changeable and subjective that not only do I have dozens of opinions on it but there are thousands of other people writing about it too. There are dozens in Dublin alone; I was asked to have a look at 
23 outstanding outfits, by 18 NCAD Fashion & Textile graduates are currently on display at the newly refurbished NCAD building on Thomas Street. The building itself is one part disused fire station and one part glass fronted modern architecture and is situated opposite the Vicar Street venue. When I was there this afternoon, I watched as people stopped in the street and stared through the giant glass windows at the designs inside. The gallery space is very simple with each design hung on a mannequin and the atmosphere is created by a television on one wall showing interviews with the young designers.
One of the first stories I covered on the blog was the exciting and inspiring 
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