It is a period of reflection and relates to aesthetics, taking place before considering the restraints of production. Intw – Sinéad O’Dwyer

How do you bring a vision into full-fruition? Forming ideas, images and concepts means to operate beyond the input of our physical senses.  It is a period of reflection and relates to aesthetics, taking place before considering the restraints of production. Design is the process that precedes the discipline of manufacturing. Our Fashion Editor Giorgia Fuzio in conversation with Sinéad O’Dwyer.

I went to an Isabelle Blow and Philip Treacy exhibit in Dublin when I was about 12 – I decided to become a fashion designer. What sets fashion apart from the other art forms is its constant engagement with the body. Growing up, I was into dance for the same reason. I think I was always trying to understand the world by putting my physical self at the center of experiences. My work stems from my own debilitating experience of body dysmorphia and its continued role in my life. I draw on my close friends’ and family’s experiences to help me tell the story of the tenuous and destructive relationships many women have with their bodies. I do this by using life casting to first literally take the woman’s body as the beginning point to the process of design. My moulded body casts are key pieces for me each season. I take a different friend to life-cast for each collection.