Legacy of love
Former Vogue digital director Anne-Marie Tomchak launches ShareJoy, a project that uses fashion and social media as a conduit for mental health awareness, inspired by the late Arwen Sullivan
Laura Whitmore Dr Doireann O’Leary Tara Stewart Jamie O’Herlihy Roz Purcell Erica Cody Debbie O’Donnell Louise McSharry Caroline McMenamin Celia Holman-Lee Una Healy DJ Mona-Lxsa Olivia Treacy Keilidh Cashell Caroline Foran Nadia Forde Ruth Coady Lorraine Maher Síle Seoige Fiona Leahy The worlds of fashion and social media are too often a negative influence on mental health. Now, former Vogue digital director Anne-Marie Tomchak aims to harness them as a force for good as, with the help of 20 prominent Irish women, she launches the ShareJoy project
Last year changed my relationship with my clothes and my phone. The pandemic meant that I was wearing less of my wardrobe and spending more time online. But while my use of social media was up, my consumption of the latest must-have handbag had more or less ground to a halt.
Doomscrolling (aimlessly using social media) left me strung out. It’s like a sugar hangover, where you wake up the next day with a film of plaque in your mouth, lethargic and discombobulated. I had temporarily fallen out of love with the two things that had been significant pillars of my career — fashion and technology.
Like many people, the pandemic had given me an opportunity to re-evaluate what was important to me. After years of being on a work treadmill, I finally had the chance to reset how I really wanted to spend my time — and it wasn’t on the latest luxury fashion item or sharing my every waking moment on Instagram.
However, when I received a call from my dear friend Maeve McMahon in autumn 2020, telling me about the impact that lockdown had had on Marie Sullivan, it stopped me in my tracks. Marie had lost her
daughter Arwen (23) to suicide — you can read her moving story on the previous pages.
As a journalist, I have encountered many heartbreaking stories throughout my career and I have personally experienced the impact that severe mental illness can have on loved ones. But there was something different about this news. Being locked down in London unable to travel home, having the time and space to really listen and to hear first-hand about the mental health of young Irish people really struck a chord.
Maeve, Marie and I arranged a
video call. It still gives me a lump in my throat thinking about it. Mostly, we just listened to Marie. She told us how much her daughter Arwen loved fashion. It served as a reminder to me about that part of fashion that I had temporarily lost sight of — that beautiful, shiny and creative attribute that can bring joy and meaning into our lives.
As someone who, as a teenager, used to make clothes from remnants in Hickeys on Henry Street using a Butterick pattern or working up my own designs to wear on nights out in Dublin as a broke college student in DIT, I’ve long understood the positive power of fashion. It’s a source of expression and identity and it can literally change how we feel about ourselves and others. In other words, whether we like it or not, what we wear has an impact on our place in the world. It can drive social mobility and informs how we are perceived by total strangers.
And so ShareJoy was born.
The idea was simple: get 20 accomplished Irish women to donate items from their wardrobes that give them joy, and put them up for sale on the mobile shopping app Depop. All proceeds from this very special fashion edit go to
Pieta House, our first designated charity, which does incredible work in the area of suicide prevention and support for bereaved families.
Think of it as a really curated online charity shop that’s full of fashion gems, where you get to know some of the people behind the clothes and be a part of a wider conversation about sustainability, fashion and well-being.
While there is a lot of positive change afoot in the fashion industry, the problems associated with it are still of such an enormous magnitude that it can be difficult at times to feel good about fashion. It is one of the most wasteful industries in the world and has huge work to do to address the exploitation of garment workers and the pace of production. In short, its carbon footprint is shameful.
For that reason, ShareJoy aims to leverage the circular economy to support the third sector by focusing on pre-loved fashion. The circular economy is all about using existing resources and eliminating waste. Tens-of-millions-of-euroworth of clothes are sitting dormant in our closets. If we can harness even a fraction of this to help financially support the work of the likes of Pieta House, that could be transformative. What’s in your wardrobe literally has the power to change lives.
As part of the ShareJoy launch, you can shop a range of stunning and meaningful items that are filled with memories. From Una Healy’s Burberry coat, which she wore when she was pregnant with her first child, Aoife Belle; to Celia Holman-Lee’s lilac Rachel Gilbert ballgown, worn when she was named VIP’s Most Stylish Ever; and the Reiss halterneck dress in which Caroline Foran said ‘I do’, as she got married.
ShareJoy is also a place to spotlight Irish design: Laura Whitmore and Tara Stewart have both donated distinctive pieces by the incredible Irish designer Joanne Hynes. Síle Seoige is sharing two stunning headbands by the Galway-based milliner Emily Jean Atelier. And Louise McSharry has donated a gorgeous sweater from the award-winning Irish brand Jill & Gill.
It was important to me that the ShareJoy launch edit include items in a range of price points. The edit offers pre-owned luxury fashion such as Nadia Forde’s Zac Posen bag and Roz Purcell’s silver minidress by Copenhagen label Rotate Birger Christensen. But there are also items from the high street, such as the H&M red puffer jacket donated by the MalawianIrish DJ Mona-Lxsa; the vintage adidas jumpsuit from singer
Erica Cody and the pink hoodie given by Cork-based trans YouTuber Jamie O’Herlihy.
The fact that fashion and technology have, at times, been bad for people’s mental health is not lost on me. Emaciated or heavily airbrushed models in unattainable clothing are responsible for presenting unrealistic beauty ideals, promoting diet culture and toxic hierarchies. But it must be acknowledged that a lot of good work is also being done to dismantle the status quo and to address long-standing inequalities and lack of representation.
I can also see the irony of launching a ShareJoy Instagram page. Studies show that Instagram is one of the worst social-media platforms for our mental health. It can result in low self-esteem and poor body image and is often a space where everyone’s life seems perfect, while serving up toxic positivity that diminishes or fails to acknowledge the reality facing those with mental illness. ShareJoy’s goal is to provide a useful forum on Instagram that is built around time well spent.
I really hope that in 2021
initiatives like ShareJoy can counter negative narratives and bring some much needed light into the darkness by providing an antidote to the problems associated with technology and fashion. Like mental health, the challenges facing fashion and tech are very stark and real. They’re not quickly solved or easily put into a soundbite. But if we consume technology and fashion in a more mindful way and use them with intent and purpose, hopefully, we’ll begin to see a positive change.
In the past year, we’ve seen frontline workers grace the covers of glossy magazines. Who and what we celebrate has changed. You may recognise many of the names on the ShareJoy edit. But there will be others you have not heard of before. And that is by
I’ve long understood the positive power of fashion. It’s a source of expression and identity and it can literally change how we feel about ourselves and others
design. This list celebrates health professionals like GP Dr Doireann O’Leary and mental-health therapist Caroline Mc Menamin. And it acknowledges the women in media doing the work behind the scenes. People like TV and film producer Ruth Coady, who is one of the industry’s biggest talents, and Debbie O’Donnell, a stalwart of Irish media who now runs her own production company in the independent sector.
Also on that list is Lorraine Maher, a carer, an artist and the founder of IamIrish, which celebrates the black Irish experience and strives for a more diverse representation of Irish identity. I first came across Lorraine’s work during Black History Month in 2016 when I was the UK editor of Mashable and it has been special to be able to reconnect with her for this initiative.
Beyond the over-riding message about pre-loved fashion and mental health, I hope that ShareJoy serves as a celebration of Irish talent and ingenuity. For me, the presence of women like interior designer Fiona Leahy, make-up artist Keilidh Cashell and actress Olivia Tracey on this edit reflects the reach of Irish talent across the globe.
Tomorrow is the official launch of ShareJoy. And really, it is just the beginning. We’ll be doing monthly drops in the ShareJoy Shop with new items generously donated throughout the year. We’ll also be inviting people to become a part of the ShareJoy community and to get in touch if they’d like to be listed on our official Depop and Instagram pages.
Every single woman in the launch edit represents something important to me. They are women I genuinely respect and admire. And although they are from a range of different socio-economic backgrounds, ethnicities and age groups (in every decade from 20s to 70s) they are a symbol of what is possible when Irish women put their hearts, minds and wardrobes together.