Fashion
Irish design’s hottest new star
Next Tuesday night, Colin Horgan, a young designer from Ardfert, Co Kerry, will be the opening collection of On|Off Presents, the prestigious closing show of London Fashion Week’s autumn/winter 2019/20 presentations. Previous alumni of On|Off include Peter Pilotto and JW Anderson — and look at where they are now.
So how have you not heard of Colin Horgan before? Well, we featured his exciting work last August, in our LIFE fashion editorial on Brown Sugar’s amazing presentation exploring gender, for the L’Oreal Colour Trophy awards.
Colin studied fashion at the Limerick School of Art & Design (LSAD) and graduated in 2014. He sold in Atelier 27, Om Diva for a time, before going to Copenhagen for a year to work for Anne Sofie Madsen. She encouraged him to do an MA at the Royal College of Art (RCA) London.
Colin graduated from the RCA in 2017, which is where On|Off ’s founder, talent spotter and mentor extraordinaire Lee Lapthorne identified him, and invited him to be part of the exclusively curated programme. (Suzy Menkes, one of fashion’s truly most discerning editors, also identified Colin from his RCA graduation show as one to watch, as did Women’s Wear Daily.)
Today, as a matter of routine, Colin sends several pieces each month to Lady Gaga’s stylists, who spotted his work several years ago. He has turned down some of the world’s most famous celebrities, as they were not in line with his vision of the woman he was creating for.
That vision is of woman as powerful, wonderful, awe-inspiring and strong. Colin Horgan designs to enhance that. He does it sublimely. I have rarely in my career seen such beautifully crafted, stunningly fabricated, sculptural, wearable pieces. His razor-sharp pattern cutting and silhouettes remind me of early Claude Montana, Azzedine Alaia, Michael Mortell and, Colin’s own hero, Thierry Mugler.
“My manifesto is that the clothes should transport the woman to someone else. There should be something inspirational,” Colin tells me. “My MA collection took inspiration from my own family of women, who are fearless. The origin of the story of the brand is based on the idea of a dangerous woman. My spring/summer 2019 collection was about that woman coming home from the night before.”
Colin uses colour dramatically, adores fabrics that are light reflective or luminescent, and crafts a finish that is blade-sharp. “Nothing is as it seems,” states Colin. “In all art and design, not just fashion, you should feel something. My clothes are special. I put my heart into them.”
And, boy, what a creative heart it is.