[dropcap]W[/dropcap]hen it comes to finding the most innovative new names in menswear, one need look no further than the line-up for MAN. The joint initiative between Fashion East and Topman seeks to nurture emerging young designers, and their London Collections: Men presentations never disappoint. In the past, MAN has offered a platform for exciting and diverse talents including Craig Green, Christopher Shannon, Nasir Mazhar, Astrid Andersen and Irish designers JW Anderson and Alan Taylor. The AW15 showcase included re-imagined pinstripes from Nicomede Talavera and workwear-inspired sandwich boards and tool aprons from Liam Hodges. Fresh from his Central Saint Martins MA, Galway-born newcomer Rory Parnell-Mooney completed the trio.
Parnell-Mooney’s graduate collection explored traditional ecclesiastical shapes via images of European rioters, which were clearly a point of reference in his MAN show. “The AW15 collection was really an extension of what I did on the Masters at Saint Martins,” he tells tn2. “I kept finding images that I loved after I had finished the MA collection and wanted to continue to use them.” Preparation for MAN was frantic: “It’s all been a bit of a whirlwind really — I found out about the show and receiving Fashion East’s backing quite near the show so it was really just work work work. I think the really interesting things that I worked out this season are to do with construction, like how to conceal pockets by bonding them into the outside of coats and just having the opening as a simple slit; or the play with textile — the linen pieces that have these individual threads hand plucked out.” He was also charged with a lot more responsibilities for MAN, in comparison with a university setting. “Now I am the one applying the pressure. There is no tutor telling me deadlines, I have to decide all of that myself […] We did the casting and the music, and decided on hair and makeup, which before was always decided by the course [coordinators].”
“It’s funny, I left Ireland being like ‘I hate it there’, and then a couple of years later, I’m basing whole collections on images of Ireland.”
In terms of who Parnell-Mooney sees wearing this collection, he explains, “I design for myself — a more extreme version of me, but I do love every piece in the collection and I wear a lot of it too.” There’s something classic and almost out-of-time about his designs, that seems specifically not driven by trend. “I love the idea of someone buying a coat from the collection and wearing it in ten years with a pair of trousers from that collection,” he enthuses. “I think I have tried to make a conscious effort to put style and quality above trend.” The collection focuses on very clean, minimal, unfussy pieces, privileging luxurious fabrics over excessive detailing. “I think it’s more so a reflection of me as a person. I hate ‘stuff’, I hate fussy little things, so it’s just me making clothes that reflect that.”
Most designers cut their teeth working for labels before branching out into their own, but Parnell-Mooney decided to launch a label directly after graduating from his MA in Central Saint Martins. “I did some interviews for houses and basically decided it wasn’t for me,” he recalls. “Nothing really seemed like a perfect fit. I wanted to have total control of the entire thing — not just designing shirts or something. I want to be a part of every aspect of a collection and a show.”
Many Irish fashion designers have found success in London, most notably JW Anderson and Simone Rocha, which raises the question about whether designers need to go abroad in order to succeed. When asked about whether he moved to London out of a desire to leave Ireland or because he felt it necessary for his career, Parnell-Mooney reflects, “I think it was a combination of the two things. I knew when I left Ireland that I wanted to study fashion. I could have gone and studied it in NCAD, but when you’re in London, the environment is very different and it’s more conducive to studying fashion — you can go two seconds down the road and find the fabric shop, or go an hour down the road and there’s the V&A. There’s such a wealth of information to study here.” However, it took leaving Ireland to want to look back for his first MAN collection: “It’s funny, I left Ireland being like ‘I hate it there’, and then a couple of years later, I’m basing whole collections on images of Ireland — loads of the inspiration for the last collection AW15 was [from] photographs taken in Ireland.”
The response to the show has been “really positive, [there has been] lots of interest from shops which is great and also lots of super nice reviews which is always nice”. Next season, Parnell-Mooney plans to reapply to Fashion East: “They have been so good to me and so helpful, it would be a total pleasure to work with them next season […] I think there’s an amazing energy at London Fashion Week and London Collections: Men, and everyone feeds off each other’s energy.” If his MAN collection is anything to go by, Parnell-Mooney has ushered in a new chapter in Irish fashion, and it’s one we’re looking forward to seeing.
Photos courtesy of Virginia Arcaro.
