Why Christina’s and Rihanna’s designer had to leave Ireland
LEADING Irish designer Una Burke has caught the eye of several celebrities – but said she had to leave Irish shores to become a success in the fashion.
And the young talent, whose fans include Rihanna, Christina Aguilera and Lady Gaga, said moving her Londonbased business to Ireland is not viable because of a lack of recognition for fashion here.
The 31-year- old Roscommon native warned that the country is losing top designers because of inadequate incentives for fashion graduates to stay.
She said: ‘If you go on a jobs website in Ireland to apply for a job, there isn’t even fashion design there. It’s not even recognised as an art form. What sort of incentive is that for me to move my business home?
‘ There’s a little bit more [respect] these days but if your own Government can’t see the fact that this business is worth billions of pounds here in the UK, they’re j ust too shortsighted to actually support young designers so that they don’t leave the country.’
Ms Burke’s decision to stay in London mirrors that of other Irish designers such as Philip Treacy, Simone Rocha, Paul Costelloe and Orla Kiely, who have all flourished after taking their talents to the UK.
Starting off as a junior designer in a handbag company, Ms Burke now runs her own studio in south London, working solely with leather for her creations.
A graduate of both Limerick School of Art and Design and London College of Fashion, she laments the loss of young Irish students to countries with more of a focus on fashion.
‘ There’s a lot of young designers, very talented, that are comi ng out of Limerick, Dublin and several other colleges around Ireland and they’re just leaving the country because there’s nothing to stay for,’ she said.
Not only has pop star Rihanna worn one of her pieces for a performance in 2011, but Ms Burke has an enviable celebrity following which includes Lady Gaga, Christina Aguilera, Daphne Guinness and Nicki Minaj. Even though admitting to not really ‘getting’ the idea of celebrity, she was delighted when Rihanna chose to wear one of her creations – a pink neck piece with gold studs.
‘ I actually got really excited when Rihanna wore my stuff because she l ooked r eally, really good in it and it was styled in a way that I really liked,’ she said. ‘ They took my tough militarylooking piece and styled it with something that was really fluid and elegant and she looked really elegant wearing it which is exactly what I hoped people would do.’
Treating her celebrity commissions like any other, Ms Burke said she would particularly like to dress quirky stars like actress Tilda Swinton or singer Björk.
Filling her early collections with large, structural pieces like body braces, hunchback jackets and shoulder holsters, she has now included smaller items like belts and cuffs in her recent work to make it more accessible to the ‘ever-evolving market’.
She also said her love of working with leather came from her grandfather, who was a cobbler, while the fact she grew up on a farm made her respect the material she works with. Ms Burke also has art exhibitions currently running in London and Seoul, and is preparing to do costume design for an opera in Austria.