It is a method that Sinéad O’Dwyer developed during her time at London’s Royal College of Art, where her exploration into detoxifying the industry began. Since graduating, her eponymous work has remained a love-letter to the human body that has continued to challenge the dysmorphia that parallels the fashion industry. Going against the traditional ‘sample-size-orientated logic’, O’Dwyer opts for diverse bodies that remain central to the entire design process.
“It creates better design. It opens the mind to a more expanded vision of beauty, it breaks down the patriarchy.”
Her work explores moulding, stretch and innovative pattern-making as technologies to accommodate women and gender non-conforming femmes who have historically been precluded from access to luxury garments. Sinéad’s work is an aesthetic dialogue between delicate and dominant.
For London Fashion Week, UNCLE partnered with Sinéad O’Dwyer to bring her principles and methodology out of the workroom and into the streets. The posters showcased her SS/PF25 campaign and championed the kaleidoscopic spectrum of feminine expression, with no better time to do so than during London Fashion Week.
features
09.25 Sinéad O’Dwyer’s work is a love-letter to the human body
Her practice starts with the model, not the garment.
CAN YOU EXPLAIN WHO YOU ARE, WITHIN YOUR OWN WORDS?
I’m an Irish womenswear designer living in London. I would say I’m quite a countryside girl still, growing up in Durrow which is outside of the town of Tullamore, Co. Offaly.
CAN YOU TELL US WHAT GROWING UP IN SMALL TOWN IRELAND WAS LIKE FOR YOU?
I loved being outside all the time, the freedom of being able to roam as I liked as a kid, exploring and building things. I was also lucky to go to Gaelscoil though so I grew up speaking Irish. The school was so new, though there was at first just a handful of students in two terraced houses with the walls knocked down in between, I think it was special to be part of a new school that was so focused on Irish learning and music and poetry and stories.
YOU PREVIOUSLY SAID THAT YOU FELL IN LOVE WITH FASHION AT AGE 12 AFTER VISITING AN EXHIBITION IN DUBLIN. WERE YOU MAKING THINGS BEFORE THIS EXPERIENCE? IF SO, HOW DID THINGS CHANGE AFTER?
I was always making things, my Nanny (grandmother) taught me to sew and knit from a very early age and I was always cooking too. Dad is a silversmith and artist so I also was tinkering around in his workshop here and there, I was always making something. However, going to the Philip Treacy/Isabella Blow exhibit was my first taste of fashion. Seeing the ship hat on Naomi Campbell on the runway (in the exhibit) awoke something in me that connected the body and human/emotions with craft.
YOU GRADUATED FROM LONDON’S RCA IN 2018, AND IT WAS HERE THAT YOUR ATTITUDES TOWARDS BODY ACCEPTANCE OCCURRED. CAN YOU TELL US ABOUT THESE TRANSFORMATIVE YEARS FOR YOU? WHAT WAS IT LIKE?
I went there searching for meaning, after working briefly in fashion, and feeling disillusioned about the industry very quickly after seeing the wastefulness and extreme thinness at shows, it sort of freaked me out. I have always been searching to connect with what I do and so I heard about Zowie Broach and wanted to meet her. When I was accepted, I started my course, and in those two years, I finally identified that I had an eating disorder and started thinking about where it came from and that’s truly the beginning of my journey. Understanding the impact that the design of the patterns and who is chosen as the fit model as being the basis for so much misery was a powerful realisation that I wanted to communicate to the world, especially those I love, my sister and mother and myself too. It’s been utterly transformative, I have gone from being singularly obsessed with my size to genuinely not caring, in a way that I thought was impossible for me. I would not know myself if younger Sinéad could see me now.
I’m an Irish womenswear designer living in London. I would say I’m quite a countryside girl still, growing up in Durrow which is outside of the town of Tullamore, Co. Offaly.
CAN YOU TELL US WHAT GROWING UP IN SMALL TOWN IRELAND WAS LIKE FOR YOU?
I loved being outside all the time, the freedom of being able to roam as I liked as a kid, exploring and building things. I was also lucky to go to Gaelscoil though so I grew up speaking Irish. The school was so new, though there was at first just a handful of students in two terraced houses with the walls knocked down in between, I think it was special to be part of a new school that was so focused on Irish learning and music and poetry and stories.
YOU PREVIOUSLY SAID THAT YOU FELL IN LOVE WITH FASHION AT AGE 12 AFTER VISITING AN EXHIBITION IN DUBLIN. WERE YOU MAKING THINGS BEFORE THIS EXPERIENCE? IF SO, HOW DID THINGS CHANGE AFTER?
I was always making things, my Nanny (grandmother) taught me to sew and knit from a very early age and I was always cooking too. Dad is a silversmith and artist so I also was tinkering around in his workshop here and there, I was always making something. However, going to the Philip Treacy/Isabella Blow exhibit was my first taste of fashion. Seeing the ship hat on Naomi Campbell on the runway (in the exhibit) awoke something in me that connected the body and human/emotions with craft.
YOU GRADUATED FROM LONDON’S RCA IN 2018, AND IT WAS HERE THAT YOUR ATTITUDES TOWARDS BODY ACCEPTANCE OCCURRED. CAN YOU TELL US ABOUT THESE TRANSFORMATIVE YEARS FOR YOU? WHAT WAS IT LIKE?
I went there searching for meaning, after working briefly in fashion, and feeling disillusioned about the industry very quickly after seeing the wastefulness and extreme thinness at shows, it sort of freaked me out. I have always been searching to connect with what I do and so I heard about Zowie Broach and wanted to meet her. When I was accepted, I started my course, and in those two years, I finally identified that I had an eating disorder and started thinking about where it came from and that’s truly the beginning of my journey. Understanding the impact that the design of the patterns and who is chosen as the fit model as being the basis for so much misery was a powerful realisation that I wanted to communicate to the world, especially those I love, my sister and mother and myself too. It’s been utterly transformative, I have gone from being singularly obsessed with my size to genuinely not caring, in a way that I thought was impossible for me. I would not know myself if younger Sinéad could see me now.
YOU SAY THAT INCLUSIVE DESIGN GIVES YOUR WORK ITS MEANING. WHY IS IT IMPORTANT, ESPECIALLY TODAY, TO USE A DIVERSITY OF BODY SHAPES AND SIZES?
It creates better design. It opens the mind to a more expanded vision of beauty, it breaks down the patriarchy. It is just more interesting, it is more sustainable, it is kinder, it is radical. To question why you think something is beautiful and who told you to think that and try and figure out what you see as attractive, is a process of unlearning and so meaningful. I feel that I actually started learning a lot about that through watching photographers, seeing Sharna Osborne on set in one of my very first projects shooting Agusta Yr in 2018 really opened my mind. I really saw the tender connection between model and photographer was so necessary to create a good image, as the work is so much about the moment, the connection and trust between photographer and model is so palpable. Observing Sharna and Agusta together, I really saw what it was to see beauty and capture it through your own gaze.
WHAT IS YOUR PROCESS FOR MAKING A COLLECTION? WHERE DOES IT ALL BEGIN FOR YOU?
Usually a memory, a desire to connect emotion and narrative. I am also always inspired by craft so combining techniques across disciplines I find exciting.
IN THIS PARTNERSHIP WITH UNCLE, YOU HAVE USED IMAGERY FROM YOUR SS/PF25 COLLECTION. WHAT INSPIRED IT THIS COLLECTION? WHAT IS IT ALL ABOUT?
Ottilie Landmark shot my SS25/PF25 campaign. It features artists Davia Spain and D.D. Lyonne and that work was about a memory of falling in love for the first time, a year I spent in NC and driving around and fresh water and stifling heat and our first kiss.
HOW IMPORTANT IS LONDON FASHION WEEK FOR UP-AND-COMING DESIGNERS AND THOSE ALREADY ESTABLISHED?
It’s a really vital platform to show our world to potential buyers and customers, so they can understand the story before viewing the collection and all its details at showroom.
IS THERE ANYTHING SPECIAL SINÉAD O’DWYER HAS PLANNED FOR LONDON FASHION WEEK?
Not this season, but I am doing a new performance work at the Barbican in November.
HOW DOES THE CITY OF LONDON SHAPE THE WORK YOU DO? AND ARE THERE STILL SOME ASPECTS OF SMALL-TOWN IRELAND THAT COME THROUGH IN YOUR WORK?
A lot of my collections are based on my formative memories in Ireland, but the city of London shapes me through community and collaborators. I could never make my work without the help, support and commitment of so many friends, designers, journalists, artisans, etc. in London. I love working here; I am very lucky.
It creates better design. It opens the mind to a more expanded vision of beauty, it breaks down the patriarchy. It is just more interesting, it is more sustainable, it is kinder, it is radical. To question why you think something is beautiful and who told you to think that and try and figure out what you see as attractive, is a process of unlearning and so meaningful. I feel that I actually started learning a lot about that through watching photographers, seeing Sharna Osborne on set in one of my very first projects shooting Agusta Yr in 2018 really opened my mind. I really saw the tender connection between model and photographer was so necessary to create a good image, as the work is so much about the moment, the connection and trust between photographer and model is so palpable. Observing Sharna and Agusta together, I really saw what it was to see beauty and capture it through your own gaze.
WHAT IS YOUR PROCESS FOR MAKING A COLLECTION? WHERE DOES IT ALL BEGIN FOR YOU?
Usually a memory, a desire to connect emotion and narrative. I am also always inspired by craft so combining techniques across disciplines I find exciting.
IN THIS PARTNERSHIP WITH UNCLE, YOU HAVE USED IMAGERY FROM YOUR SS/PF25 COLLECTION. WHAT INSPIRED IT THIS COLLECTION? WHAT IS IT ALL ABOUT?
Ottilie Landmark shot my SS25/PF25 campaign. It features artists Davia Spain and D.D. Lyonne and that work was about a memory of falling in love for the first time, a year I spent in NC and driving around and fresh water and stifling heat and our first kiss.
HOW IMPORTANT IS LONDON FASHION WEEK FOR UP-AND-COMING DESIGNERS AND THOSE ALREADY ESTABLISHED?
It’s a really vital platform to show our world to potential buyers and customers, so they can understand the story before viewing the collection and all its details at showroom.
IS THERE ANYTHING SPECIAL SINÉAD O’DWYER HAS PLANNED FOR LONDON FASHION WEEK?
Not this season, but I am doing a new performance work at the Barbican in November.
HOW DOES THE CITY OF LONDON SHAPE THE WORK YOU DO? AND ARE THERE STILL SOME ASPECTS OF SMALL-TOWN IRELAND THAT COME THROUGH IN YOUR WORK?
A lot of my collections are based on my formative memories in Ireland, but the city of London shapes me through community and collaborators. I could never make my work without the help, support and commitment of so many friends, designers, journalists, artisans, etc. in London. I love working here; I am very lucky.
