Jen Stevens meets Róisín Pierce, the Irish designer making waves globally.

You should know the name Róisín Pierce.

The rising fashion star whose label launched in 2019 has already had three collaborations with Chanel, and is one of 20 short listed designers for the 2022 LVMH Prize for Young Fashion Designers, the winner of which receives a €300,000 endowment and enjoys a year-long LVMH mentorship.

I speak to Róisín from her studio in south Dublin where she lives and works with her collections. She is excited to go to Paris this week to meet the others on the short list, and the LVMH team.

“It’s a really supportive prize for young designers. It can be life changing and it certainly would be for me. It’s just so exciting and there is a year mentorship on top of the finance which would be absolutely incredible.”

Róisín launched her eponymous label in 2019, to huge acclaim. Designed entirely in white, her collections are breathtaking. Ethereal, whimsical, and stunning to look at, Róisín’s pieces are a study in the beauty of craft.

“I love working in all white on an aesthetic level, but I also think that if there was colour involved you would be distracted. I think working in the same colour each season and with the same techniques really does push me to design in newer and more interesting ways. I feel it can create something quite fresh and that’s really when I know a piece is finished, when I feel like it has enough freshness for me to be okay with it being released.”

Starting so soon before the beginning of a global pandemic may have derailed many young designers, but Róisín found space to be creative in the midst of uncertainty.

“The only way it really affected my work was through supply and difficulty on that end. But there was a break in things and people didn’t need you to do much and that was amazing for my creative process and designing. It was a forced quiet and something I hadn't experienced in a while. So, it hasn't been completely bad. I'm used to kind of going off and trying to switch things off and creating.”

Even in those moments of quiet though Róisín has been busy. US department store Nordstrom were quick to spot the young designer’s talent and she has been working with them for some months now.

“I’m working with Nordstrom Space, which is almost like a really beautifully curated gallery with these beautiful installations. They have a mix of well-known designers like Comme des Garcons and then smaller new and up and coming labels that they see potential in, and so it's really nice to sit amongst those. What I love about Nordstrom is that they actually contacted me very early on and before I had won awards or the Chanel association. I really admire them. And I was really excited to partner with them.”

That Chanel association came about when Róisín won the Métiers d’Art Prize at the 2019 Hyères Festival. Her prize saw her matched with the renowned Parisian milliner Maison Michel who creates hats for Chanel. After that another opportunity to collaborate with a Chanel metier presented itself and she worked with Maison Paloma who create stunning fabrics for the fashion house before finally going on to design a bag with the best Parisian haute couture leatherworkers.

Róisín’s way of working is different to that of the traditional fashion calendar. She eschews the usual rush to fulfil the schedule of seasons that most labels subscribe to, instead releasing her work when it is ready.

“I do the collections annually and it really is about respecting the craft and the time that goes into the pieces and developing a fully formed collection that I feel like has done something new. It is really going against what is being done. A lot of young designers do keep to the schedule which cool for them, but I'm not interested in working that way.

The brand is really about pushing newness through the use of smocking and zero waste, and creating new inventions and textures. It’s about craft but also exploration and trying to push that craft to a new level.”

There has been a lot of discussion recently about the environmental impact of fashion and fast fashion in particular, and while brands are rushing to invest in sustainability and making an effort to work in a less wasteful way, it has been something Róisín has focused on since her label’s launch.

“The zero-waste side of things is something that I’ve been doing since 2019. It was just something that always interested me. To me it was doing something that felt more impactful. And so, almost all the pieces are constructed from strips and squares, which in itself is a bit of a challenge, but I find that it pushes for more creativity.”

With a trip to Paris this week for the LVMH prize and plans to do a presentation in either London or Paris in September, it may not be long before Dublin loses Róisín to one of the bigger fashion cities.

“I'm pretty happy working here. But I would always be open to different opportunities. For now, the plan is to keep the craft here and continue working with talented people in Ireland, but I love the idea of working in two places at once at some point in the future. I’d never say never!”