Creativity in the Margins: Identity and Locality in Ireland's Fashion Journey

Abstract

Ireland has undergone significant economic changes in the last 170 years: from the destitution of the Great Famine of the 1840s to the affluence of the Celtic Tiger years at the end of the twentieth century. This article examines the relationship of Irish people with fashion, whether as producers of crafted textiles for export to larger centers of culture in the nineteenth century, or as consumers who integrated elements of fashion with folk dress traditions. The effect of Ireland's heritage of folk material culture on the discourse of dress in the cultural nationalism of the early twentieth century is explained. The early flowering of fashion design in Dublin and the international success of designers such as Sybil Connolly and Irene Gilbert is discussed through the use of classic histories of Irish fashion: the subsequent performance of the industry in the freer trade environment of the 1970s and 1980s is assessed. Irish fashion today is building an international profile, while the industry copes with the challenges of multinational retailing and globalization of production. The article concludes by looking at localized fashion discourses, where groups use ritualized display to build a local engagement with the international aesthetic discourse of fashion.