Some Of Ireland’s Biggest Fashion Designers Have Come Together To Make One-Off Pieces Inspired By #RepealThe8th

The campaign to repeal the 8th Amendment is one that people have quite literally worn on their sleeves – from the Repeal jumpers to Maser’s now iconic heart logo on t-shirts and badges. So it’s not surprising that Irish designers are getting very inspired by it all.

For their Fashion Is Repealing project, The Hunreal Issues asked some of Ireland’s biggest designers to create one-off couture pieces based on what #repealthe8th means to them.

Founder Andrea Horan explained the idea behind the project:

As the referendum mostly affects women, we wanted to work with the Irish fashion industry to create a visual conversation within an industry primarily absorbed by women. We worked with the best designers and makers to come up with some of the most powerful responses to the fight for reproductive rights in Ireland. Whoever is lucky enough to end up with these pieces will be getting a piece of fashion history.

We already glimpsed two of the designs at the Peter Mark VIP Style Awards last Friday – Favourite Designer nominee Helen Steele and winner Emma Manley each wore their creations on the red carpet:

Helen’s dress is filled with her signature rainbow colours – the purple, she says, is inspired by the suffragettes, who wore purple sashes – to symbolise our “nation of many colours standing together for change”.

Emma’s leather minidress is based on an American football jersey, and plays on the idea of women coming together as a team to fight for their rights.

Laura Whitmore, meanwhile, wore designer Louise Kavanagh’s embellished jacket to a pro-repeal event in London.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bh4hQzJFUvt/

Other designers taking part include Natalie B Coleman, Jill DeBurca, jewellery brand Chupi, milliner Margaret O’Connor, and knitwear designer Pearl Reddington.

The couture pieces will be available to purchase in Atrium in Dublin’s Powerscourt Centre on May 10, from 5pm to 7.30pm – each designer has also created 50 smaller collectible pieces that you can buy, with all funds raised going to Together For Yes.

Sounds like an incredibly glam way of supporting the campaign. We’d expect nothing less from The Hunreal Issues.

• #repealthe8th
• Andrea Horan
• helen steele
• the hunreal issues