Dublin Independent Fashion Week, DÚLRA and bringing ENDURANCE home
September is going to be a big month, but there’s one event in particular that feels very special. On 16th September, I’ll be showing at Dublin Independent Fashion Week as part of DÚLRA Collective, alongside knitwear designer Grace Bowman and visual artist Jessica Rodriguez.
Our show, From Solstice to Storm – will take place at The Devlin in Dublin, bringing together fashion, art, music and the Irish landscape. DÚLRA came about because, although the three of us work very differently, there was a real connection between what we were doing. Landscape, nature, movement, colour and our relationship with Ireland kept coming through in all of our work.
Rather than putting on a traditional catwalk show, we wanted to do something a little different.
The models will move through projected landscapes, Jessica will be painting live during the show, and the clothes will become part of that changing environment. For me, it’s also going to be the first runway showing of my full ENDURANCE – Threads of Discovery collection.
ENDURANCE started as my MA Fashion Knitwear collection, but it has become much bigger than that. It’s very personal and draws on my Irish heritage, migration, family connections to making and textiles, and my research into people like Tom Crean and Ernest Shackleton.
At the centre of it is the idea of endurance – the clothes we make, the things we keep, the skills that are passed down and the connection to home that somehow stays with us wherever we end up. The collection uses Irish and Scottish wool, with pieces developed through both traditional hand-flat knitting and digital production.
But I haven't stopped working on it since finishing the MA. For Dublin, I’m adding new pieces, including more of the reworked vintage denim I’ve been experimenting with, alongside new knitwear and developments of some of the original ENDURANCE looks. I want it to feel like a collection that is still evolving rather than something I finished, photographed and put away.
And showing it in Dublin feels right.
I grew up in Drimnagh and went to school in Inchicore, so there is definitely something quite emotional about bringing a collection that has made me think so much about Irish identity, migration and home back to the city where my own story started. There are still lots of things to finish between now and 16th September - but I can't wait to finally see all of the ENDURANCE pieces together and moving on a runway.
And to see what happens when three very different creative practices come together for DÚLRA.
DÚLRA COLLECTIVE – FROM SOLSTICE TO STORM
Wednesday 16th September 2026
7–9pm
The Devlin, Dublin
Dublin Independent Fashion Week
https://lnkd.in/erQfZcV6