{"id":580811,"date":"2026-07-11T19:05:46","date_gmt":"2026-07-11T19:05:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/580811\/"},"modified":"2026-07-11T19:05:46","modified_gmt":"2026-07-11T19:05:46","slug":"irish-people-love-colour-the-clare-designer-admired-by-beyonce-tilda-swinton-and-florence-pugh-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/580811\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Irish people love colour\u2019: The Clare designer admired by Beyonc\u00e9, Tilda Swinton and Florence Pugh \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cIt\u2019s an army at this point,\u201d Irish designer Michael Stewart says cheerfully, talking of the hubbub of activity in his atelier in London. \u201cWe are now working at weekends and have some lace-makers working offside. Cut, fit and finish have to go hand in hand and especially in London where some of the great ateliers are diminishing. It is important that the line is held.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stewart is speaking to The Irish Times just ahead of his highly anticipated haute couture debut in Paris<\/a> on Monday. Working from his atelier in 180 The Strand, there are as many as 15 people helping to complete the collection, with some elaborate pieces having soaked up hundreds of hours of handwork and stitching. \u201cI am asking for excellence in making, finish and craft,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n

Stewart, who is from Kilkishen in east Clare and is a graduate of LSAD and the RCA, established his label Standing Ground in 2022. Dedicated to evening wear, the name is a reference to the standing stones of his native Burren landscape \u201clike figures stepping from one time into another\u201d. <\/p>\n

Among the many standout pieces this collection promises, one is a full-length dress in Carrickmacross lace that took more than 20 lacemakers to complete from his hand-drawn motifs. It\u2019s \u201cas close as I will go into print\u201d, he says. \u201cI am all analogue. We don\u2019t have a computer, there is nothing digital as I am completely against this \u2013 I don\u2019t need it. It\u2019s about the hand of the maker, things moulded over the body.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stewart won the LVMH Savoir Faire prize in 2024 and is often touted as a successor to Alaia. His celebrity fans include Beyonc\u00e9<\/a>, Florence Pugh<\/a>, Naomi Campbell<\/a> and Tilda Swinton<\/a>, who appreciate the structural drama of his fluid columnar creations, often with corseted and beaded structures. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s about the sensitivity of the touch and how things are put together and nothing is too tight,\u201d he says. \u201cThere is a huge amount of construction in the pieces as well as balance and tension.\u201d <\/p>\n

Swinton has been regularly seen in the most breathtaking creations such as the one in a dramatic blue at an event in Seoul, another in red at the Cannes Festival and one in corseted black leather and velvet from his last collection in September. \u201cThe great thing is working with clients and knowing what you need to do with them. If someone wears something of mine, they are my greatest advertisements. I like talented people,\u201d Stewart says.<\/p>\n

\"TildaTilda Swinton in Seoul, South Korea, 2025. Photograph: Han Myung-Gu\/WireImage <\/p>\n

The strong underpinning of craft and the sculpting of fabric is central to his aesthetic; this collection has been supported by the Design & Crafts Council of Ireland and the Heritage Council. <\/p>\n

He loves colour \u2013 \u201cIrish people love colour and I love putting together colours not traditionally put together.\u201d In the collection there are a lot of grey, black and earth tones as well as scarlet, pale primrose yellow and what he calls a 1950s couture green \u2013 \u201cthe right shade is important \u2013 as well as acid green and pale goosebump green which looks really modern\u201d. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0Victoria\u2019s Secret progressing plans for new Dublin storeOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

A courtesan ball gown comes in peach double satin with black suede corsetry and black velvet. \u201cMy corsetry is really special, extremely restricted but also relieved.\u201d He talks about \u201cthe gesture of the seam, almost animated on axis points on the body \u2013 something is animated by placement. The process is totally organic and this is a highly technical studio\u201d.<\/p>\n

Fabrics \u2013 stock fabrics collected over the years \u2013 justify his use of describing Standing Ground as sustainable. They include his signature jerseys, silks, silk crepe marocain, silk georgette, double satin, silk organza, silk faille and silk velvet, the latter a speciality. Even listing them sounds like an incantation. The jersey he uses features his beading, hand sewn one by one, down to even tiny micro beads, so what was initially decorative has developed into a structural component of the garment and gives form to the seaming.<\/p>\n

Does he align himself with designers such as Madame Gres, Vionnet or Charles James? He replies that he considers Rick Owens a great designer. And what does he think of being an Irish designer? \u201cThere are many ways to be an Irish designer, so many ways to reinterpret our culture and so many ways to define what our culture is. We are a nation of storytellers and there are different stories to be told.\u201d <\/p>\n

With all this intensely fastidious attention to detail, how does he relax? \u201cI have a dog, an Affenpinscher called Igor, and I groom him. I don\u2019t chill out to relax as I have to be active because I do everything to the nth degree \u2013 if I had a garden, I think I would grow speciality roses.\u201d It\u2019s no surprise that when he was asked as a child what he wanted to be, he replied \u201ca sculptor\u201d.<\/p>\n

The haute couture collection will be supported by stylist Tallulah Harlech, daughter of Amanda Harlech, famed muse to both John Galliano and Karl Lagerfeld who oversaw his most recent photoshoot. \u201cTallulah saw what I was doing and stood by me \u2013 you need a champion. This collection is my own and I will be all over every aspect of it \u2013 you can\u2019t do your whole vision otherwise. You are just showing the potential of what you can do.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cIt\u2019s an army at this point,\u201d Irish designer Michael Stewart says cheerfully, talking of the hubbub of activity…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":580812,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[75],"tags":[12283,7486,18,117,17321,2215,19,17,361,11935,9444],"class_list":["post-580811","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-beyonce","tag-clare","tag-eire","tag-entertainment","tag-florence-pugh","tag-for-you","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-magazine","tag-paris","tag-tilda-swinton"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116902909801072414","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580811","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=580811"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580811\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/580812"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=580811"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=580811"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=580811"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}