SPOTLIGHT ON…
NCAD lecturer Linda Byrne
Fashion and memory is a subject that really interests me. It’s a research area we encourage our students to constantly engage with. I remember clearly as a child of four or five trying to fit myself into the family christening robe. I thought it was so fancy, frilly and delicate. In my desperation to make it fit, I managed to cut off the circulation to both of my arms. My childhood, to some extent, was dominated by endless excursions to fabric shops with my mother. My grandfather was a shoemaker and both my parents were brilliant makers, be it woodwork, painting or knitting. Neither one was formally trained, but both were real problem-solvers – natural designers. I WAS ALWAYS INTERESTED IN CLOTHING AND CARED ABOUT
WHAT I WORE FROM A YOUNG AGE. Art was my passion, but making my own clothes as a teenager was a given, necessity being the mother of invention. I could not find or afford to buy the type of clothing I wanted to wear, so I made it. At art college, I naturally gravitated towards working in 3D with soft materials, so I ended up in the fashion department. I never considered myself a fashion animal, and still don’t. ART AND FASHION CAN SOMETIMES HAVE AN UNEASY
RELATIONSHIP. In the past, fashion has not been given the same level of respect as some of the more traditional art forms. However, it is difficult to deny the contribution designers such as Elsa Schiaparelli, Alexander McQueen and Rei Kawakubo have made to the cultural context of their time. CLOTHING IS A DIRECT REFLECTION OF SOCIETY; IT’S OUR INTERFACE WITH
THE WORLD. We’ve brought students to the Fashion Institute of Technology’s fashion archive in New York many times. There, they are talked through some of the most important social, economic and political events in history through the medium of clothing. MY PERSONAL RELATIONSHIP WITH CLOTHES IS GROUNDED IN HISTORY, TRADITION AND THE NOTION OF SLOW FASHION. The idea of clothing having longevity, and outliving not just a season but a generation is important to my design ethos. I am not a clothing snob, but I do believe we need to be discerning shoppers. We also need to be mindful of the user stage of the fashion cycle. How we wash and maintain our clothing is incredibly important. We all have too many clothes and we’re now well aware that fashion fulfils an emotional rather than a practical need.