Born and raised in Ireland, Amy graduated from the National College of Art and Design in 2018, receiving an honours degree in Fashion Design. Leaving not only with her degree and interest in fashion, but also with a keen eye for sustainability, graphic design and the art world among us.
With just under two years of professional experience and a lifetime of lessons from her grandmother, who was a professional seamstress, in 2019 after graduating Amy had the exciting opportunity to move to New York. Consumed with opportunities, she had the luxury of working across all areas in the industry. Assisting various stylists, artists, photographers, and design houses.
Until March 2020, Amy was still pursuing her career in New York when the global pandemic hit. Deciding this time at home could be used as an opportunity itself and then slowly began to make a new collection.
Amy’s collections constantly question ways in which she can incorporate a sustainable element, with this particular collection she was able to reuse her grandmother's old traditional Irish linen tablecloths, along with incorporating a transformable versatile garment which can be worn in several ways.Taking inspirations from her traditional Irish-Catholic upbringing and in particular looking at the topic of dressing up for mass in your ‘Sunday Best’. By comparing tradition with the present, it has come to Amy’s understanding that by dressing up one day a week, it actually shaped a much more sustainable way of life through and through. There is no such thing as the local dressmaker or seamstresses anymore. Everything is bought, warn and thrown out. It’s just a start stop process.
Amy’s grandmother and all the generations before them, without knowing, were actually living a much more eco friendly lifestyle than we ever have. Dressing up one day a week in their “Sunday best”. Repairing and mending clothing, knowing who made each piece of their clothing, instead of the over-consuming and over expanding wardrobe sizes we have nowadays. For this collection Amy also went on to explore various different techniques such as hand dying with turmeric, draping, giving old tablecloths a new lease of life. This is a collection that is about narratives told through textures, fabrications, and making-techniques as much as it is about function, form or fashion.
