JW Anderson, Simone Rocha, Sinead O’Dwyer: Irish designers light up new fashion exhibition

By Prudence Wade, PA

Jonathan Anderson is “one of the masters of the luxury universe”, a fashion curator has said, as his designs appear in a new exhibition.

Rebel: 30 Years of London Fashion tracks three decades of the British Fashion Council’s NewGen programme, which has supported over 300 young designers since its inception.

Irish and Northern Irish talent has benefitted from the scheme over the years, including JW Anderson, Simone Rocha and Sinead O’Dwyer.

The show features designs from Magherafelt-born Anderson’s controversial 2013 menswear collection.

It featured men wearing micro ruffled shorts, which guest curator and BFC ambassador for emerging talent, Sarah Mower, told the PA news agency “really set off the tabloids”.

She said: “He was redefining what gender is and making a statement that clothes have no gender.”

When Anderson was recently asked about the tabloid reaction to this collection, Mower said: “His response was, ‘Fashion isn’t meant to make sense in the moment – we’re designing for the future’.”

While the collection might have scandalised the press, Anderson was welcomed into the upper echelons of fashion – in the same year, he was named as the new creative director of luxury Spanish fashion house Loewe.

“He is one of the masters of the luxury universe, and you can see this radicalism in his work,” Mower said.

Dublin-born Simone Rocha is another household name who was part of the NewGen scheme, and an example of her work is on show at the Design Museum.

Mower particularly notes her “global reach”, crediting this to the fact she has a Chinese father and Irish mother.

“I have colleagues in New York, I have friends from all around the world in fashion – and they know her. She has a lot of fans,” Mower said.

“She came up with this very radical femininity, which was tomboyish and feminine.”

The outfit that features in the exhibition is classic Simone Rocha: it mixes textures with a lace skirt and fluffy bodice, and clashes masculine and feminine together with the ethereal fabrics and a sharp collar detailing.

Designs from Dublin-born Sinead O’Dwyer are also in the exhibition. Seen as one of the rising stars in fashion, she’s part of the current NewGen cohort.

“She has evolved a radical way of dressing,” Mower said.

O’Dwyer is known for championing larger bodies in her work – and plus-size designs feature in the exhibition.

Mower said O’Dwyer noticed clothes were designed on a size six mannequin and then scaled up for bigger sizes, which doesn’t necessarily fit curvier bodies properly – so she has developed a new and progressive way of pattern cutting, to fit larger bodies perfectly.

Her aesthetic is colourful, joyous and boundary-pushing – with figure-hugging silhouettes and racy cut-outs.

Rebel: 30 Years of London Fashion sponsored by Alexander McQueen opens at the Design Museum in London on September 16th and will run until February 11th, 2024.