The inspiration behind my collection, ‘A Breath of Fresh Èire’ was initially sparked by the Coronavirus pandemic. When the world closed its doors, our eyes opened up to what we are truly passionate about. For me, my escape was Irish dancing. It has always been a prominent feature in my identity and has certainly influenced my design thinking in the past. For my collection, I found a great deal of inspiration from various aspects of Irish dancing. The elements that really resonated with me were the dancing pomps and how they’re pulled in tight to create shape around the foot, the men's traditional Irish dancing attire which conveys the rigidity of the upper body and how that is juxtaposed by the freedom of the kilt on the lower body. Also inspirational were the jewelled colours that are synonymous with dancing costumes and are represented in how I designed my fabric print and the fabrics I chose to work with.
