Look out London and Paris, there's a new fashion week in town

Times

19-07-2025

Tweed, tech and a touch of trad — Paul Costelloe is set to headline the first Ireland Fashion Week, describing the event as a 'historic moment'.
Not to be confused with Dublin Independent Fashion Week which returns for its third year from September 22, Ireland Fashion Week will run from October 6 to 10 in venues in Dublin, Connemara and the midlands.
It will feature three flagship shows, two spotlight events and three mixed showcases, highlighting graduate and professional designers.
Costelloe, Sinead Keary, Aoife McNamara and Rashhiiid by Rachel Maguire are among the 54 Irish designers who will be taking part, while Thalia Heffernan will model some of their designs.
Costelloe, who turned 80 last month, reported retained earnings of €2 million to the end of August last year through his company Paul Costelloe Design Management.
Commenting on his involvement in Ireland Fashion Week, he told The Sunday Times: 'It is a historic moment when Irish fashion steps out of the shadows to be acclaimed and considered. It shouldn't compare itself to Paris or London fashion weeks but base itself on its own culture and creativity.'
The event is an initiative by Ashley McDonnell, a Galway-born digital leader in luxury and tech who is the managing director of Puig, a Spanish fashion and beauty business with subsidiaries such as Jean Paul Gaultier, Nina Ricci and Charlotte Tilbury.
McDonnell, who lives in Dublin and Paris, said she had a long wish list of designers and models that she wanted to be involved. Thankfully this is now reality. She has also invited Sidney Toledano, a former chief executive of Christian Dior Couture, as well as Jonathan William (JW) Anderson.
'In terms of designers, we also have Bold Golf, a brand that I only discovered during the application process and I'm so impressed by what they have built in a year and a half,' she said.
'For our mixed show, which is under the theme of 'Irish roots', we have ten designers that will do four looks each and are going to tell the story of Ireland through fashion.
'That one is going to be something that blows everyone away because we've got designers who basically graduated in the last year, all the way to Magee which was founded in 1866. We'll also have a couple of models coming over from Paris and London and we'll be able to give their names pretty soon.'
McDonnell, 31, said the aim of Ireland Fashion Week was to build a robust, domestic fashion industry that had 'financial accountability and could be self-sustained'.
She said: 'One thing I feel that we have struggled with in Ireland is building an actual robust industry where everyone involved is able to be financially independent and where we can pay all the other creatives that need to be involved in a successful fashion business. So that's what the idea behind all of this is.
'The beauty of Ireland Fashion Week is that it's the first one, so we're able to set the standards really high. It was never my dream to create a fashion week but ultimately I want to build the future luxury group of Ireland platform brands and help them go international. I felt that without a really strong platform at home for brands to build that foundation, brands would be limited.'
McDonnell said Ireland Fashion Week would focus on authenticity, with Irish themes built into each show.
'Somebody asked me how will it be unique, how will someone look at an image or video from the week and know that it's Ireland fashion,' she said.
'The beauty of Ireland is that I don't think we're going to struggle with that because we are really unique. We lean into our heritage with textiles, our environment and architecture.
'We are producing shows that will be running from themes of heritage and modern heritage to Irish roots, and Irish themes with sportswear and streetwear. I don't think anyone's going to have any issues in identifying Ireland Fashion Week and that that's an Irish designer.'
McDonnell believes her event could eventually compete with the likes of London and Paris.
'This is a long-term investment — we have a tech fund of €7.5 million that will be distributed across all of those designers,' she said. 'We have a production budget of €1 million for our events and shows and we are subsidising 90 to 100 per cent of the cost of these fashion shows.
'We are doing this because we see it as a strategic investment to boost the whole creative ecosystem. I hope this will also speed us up in catching up with other countries and cities that have fashion weeks around the world.'
Heffernan will host a model boot camp as part of the week, which will aim to find and nurture Irish talent.
McDonnell said: 'This was the brainchild of Thalia. She came to me and said, 'I want to be a part of this in a more authentic and valuable way. I want to be able to help spot upcoming talent but also give people the tools they need to be able to succeed.'
'We're going to be hosting a casting day which Thalia will be a part of and then we're going to host the model boot camp where models are able to learn everything from how to walk on the runway, but also how to build their modelling careers.'
McDonnell, who dreamt of a career in fashion from the age of 16, began working for Christian Dior in Paris when she was 23. 'Anyone who was with me in secondary school will probably say that they always knew I'd end up working in fashion,' she said.
'I heard about a show that was going to take place in London, showcasing illustrations from Christian Dior. I went to the exhibition and said to my mum, 'I'm going to work for Christian Dior in Paris.' She didn't say that's impossible and she didn't say it's possible either.
'I did my research and realised most people that worked in fashion at Christian Dior studied at HEC Paris [the business school]. It took me a few years but I eventually got there and sure enough, in my first week, we had a recruiter on campus from Christian Dior. Before I even graduated, I had a full-time offer to join the headquarters in Paris as a digital manager.'