Creative collaboration with gripping yarns

Collaboration in fashion has been the decade’s fastest growing trend. Earlier this year when Showcase arranged alliances between some of our top designers and knitwear manufacturers, the results were exciting, each benefitting from the other’s specialist skills and creativity. So when designer Mariad Whisker and knitter Elaine Madigan came together, it was, as Madigan says “a match made in heaven. I always wanted to work with a designer to push my work further”. For Whisker, her counterpart was “so organised, so competent, so good with money and everything that makes me bury my head in sand – it was a dream come true”.

That has lead to another bigger collaboration between the pair for Brown Thomas for the Create showcase which opens on July 5th celebrating the work of 19 designers across ready-to-wear, accessories, millinery and jewellery.

The Madigan Whisker collection consists of 20 items in cashmere/merino and alpaca yarns with silk satin pieces including camisoles, dresses and culottes.

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Turtleneck cashmere sweater in gunmetal gray, €955, cashmere wrap, €495

“I am always searching for the perfect knitted sweater,” says Whisker who began her career as a knitwear consultant working all around the north and west of Ireland in the late 1970s.

The shapes are easygoing and flattering, the palette of colours in mineral shades of smoke, silver, winter white and peat keep the focus simple allowing the fabrics to speak for themselves.

“My job was to make the fabric from luxury yarns supplied by Loro Piana and Todd & Duncan,” says Madigan whose reputation for cashmere knitwear has become international and who has her own shop, Couture in Naas, as well as selling online.

Whisker’s familiar architectural angular and asymmetrical shapes have translated well into these comfortable, stylish knits. “I hate anything around the neck that feels like being throttled so none of the sweaters are skintight. All are big but not sloppy and everything is very comfortable – they look as sensational on a size 10 as a size 18. It’s about feeling good in them,” says Whisker.

Another plus is the generous use of fabric: luxurious cashmere/merino or alpaca knits combine with swathes of silk satin to create a mix of textures that are soft against the skin. “It has been so exciting doing this that the more I do the more ideas I have. I think I have been a frustrated knitwear person all my life,” says Whisker. The collection includes shawls, beanies and scarves. Everything is handmade and handloomed in Ireland.

Now in its sixth year, Create will showcase other designers including the London-based Teatum Jones of Irish origin who recently won the International Woolmark Prize in New York and Fintan Mulholland’s striking sculptural knits. It will also see the return of Mary Gregory with a collection of her signature pieces

The event, which has taken on a life of its own on the Irish fashion calendar, driven by Brown Thomas fashion director Shelly Corkery and supported by Eddie Shanahan of the Irish Council of Fashion Designers, runs from July 5th-August 14th.