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Several Irish-themed designs and prints have been a hot commodity lately, selling out quickly online.
via the Ditsy Bits website
Everyone knows by now, that spotting a Pellador jumper approaching you at weekend Drury Duty is an indicator that you’re about to have the worst conversation of your life. Nowadays, you will be hard-pressed not to find a Claddagh or Celtic knot among the ring stacks of arts block dwellers. On a sunny summer’s day in Dublin, there are GAA shorts and leather loafers everywhere. But where has this sudden urge to bundle up in an Aran jumper come from? Is it the newest badge of cool? Is it as fleeting and theatrical as the many others we’ve seen pass through the trend cycle?
In the past few years, there has been a great deal of homage paid to our Irish heritage through our fancy duds. Perhaps we’ve got over and rid ourselves of the association of wearing Irish symbols with allegations that our ma’s shop in Carroll’s. Symbolism such as the Claddagh, the harp, and the quintessential pint of Guinness have made their way into our clothes, jewellery, and even tattoos. From the clean and minimal to the bright and flashy, there are countless Irish brands and designers peddling their culturally-inspired wares.
One such brand is the well-known Pellador, whose integral mission is to blend the traditional comfort of wool knits with the modern partiality to vibrant colours and elements of classic sports kits, to create fresh and compelling streetwear. Though subject to a bit of playful teasing, the brand itself has its heart in the right place by making every piece a definitive tribute to our strong roots.
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Local Irish designer brand Ditsy Bits, owned and operated by Emilie Williams, availed of the trend recently with Claddagh and Guinness pint themed clothes. At the brand’s launch of this line, queues stretched on for hours, and most were left empty-handed after the brand sold out in less than a day.
Even if you’re not in the Irish fashion loop, you will surely recognise the work of Aoife Cawley – a printmaker and textiles artist who makes saints and folklore into wearable apparel and accessories with her bright, busy, and vibrant designs. Influenced by folklore and the like, Cawley aims to blend medieval art forms with contemporary techniques. Most recognisable by her Symbols of Éire scarves, she has been having a major moment over the past year.
Belfast designer,Grace Ní Mhealláin has paved her niche by way of clean, minimal Claddagh designs and sparkly pint prints, posting almost all drop announcementsas Gaeilge (in Irish).Similarly, Ogham Treasure, designs and handcrafts a collection of pendants and earrings depicting wordslike “grá” (love), “cara” (friend), and more in the ancient Irish Ogham language.
Naturally, you also have your Swarovski-encrusted Kerrygold purse, or a €1500 Tayto clutch. Sold by Irish brand, Maya Grisham, these bits are on the more gimmicky end, but it is certainly heartwarming to see the quieter yet most profuse parts of Irish culture enjoy some spotlight.
The emergence of Irish iconography in mainstream fashion recently has been rapid and widespread. It is an incredible and uneasy feeling to see a culture that is so steeped in shame, finally shout about itself proudly. But it has come in an age of too-niche transient trends and continuously unsettled personal styles, which begs a lingering fear that perhaps the harp and pint prints will be placed back down once we find the next coolest thing. After all, when culture is flogged like a trend, it will be treated like one.
There will always be a bit of frenzied bandwagoning when it comes to fashion trends. But it is brands such as Pellador – memeable as the clientele sometimes are – that keep the movement pure by making a salute to our roots the very core of what they do. There will always be people just trying it on for size until they find the next thing that piques their interest – some do it for thegrá of it, and others simply to be seen in it. Either way, Irish culture and its symbols being so deep-rooted and rich, are what protects it from becoming just another overly-taxonomised and ridiculously inauthentic fad we have created.
Perhaps the pointing of fingers at such performance is not the intellectual “gotcha” one may think it to be. It appears more as a petty attempt at gatekeeping that reinforces one’s own performance and fickle trend-based interest. Who cares if the diva in a Ditsy Bits baby tee doesn’t know the origin of a triskle? Let them live! Though in an ideal world, everyone would always have been ferociously in love with their heritage, the unapologetic spread of our culture is an act of defiance that is desperately needed for this nation that, for far too long, has not wanted to make much of a fuss.
If it is nothing more to you than a trend, then hop on. Ireland deserves this long-overdue airtime – but we must remember to consciously consume in doing so.