Irish womenswear brand RÓISÍN PIERCE was founded in 2020, inhabiting the space between intergenerational craft and contemporary textile innovation.
RÓISÍN PIERCE’s namesake founder launched the brand after studying Textile Design at the National College of Art and Design in Dublin, Ireland. A strong textile focus characterises the brand as each collection seeks to delve further into unexplored creative territory to produce an entirely new category of womenswear.
Airy silks and gauze, bridal veils, decorative loops and new floral forms meet in a harmonious cacophony of texture, embodying a hyper-feminine expression of women’s liberation. With historically dismissed women’s’ crafts such as Irish hand crochet, lacemaking and smocking as her tools, Pierce tenderly resurrects the feminine revolt and resolve which is scattered throughout Irish history, imbuing trailing flowers, sweet bows, ringleted ribbons, and smocked stars with the same soft yet unyielding power of the hands that first bore such delicate skill.
Themes of female resistance, liberation, and freedom through making are embedded within a reciprocal creative conversation between the traditional and the contemporary; each novel expression of a heritage craft fortifying both its tenderness and potency at the deft and patient hands of the maker. In beauty and softness, resilience resides.
The brand’s unique and meticulous approach to the making of garments has earned it numerous industry accolades. Pierce was invited to debut her first collection, Mná i Bhláth (Women in Bloom), at the 34th Hyères International Festival, and was subsequently awarded the Prix du Public and the Chanel Metiers d'Art award. Pierce was a finalist in the 2022 LVMH Prize and named in the Forbes 30 under 30 in the Arts and Culture Category for 2022. In 2023, Pierce showed her fourth collection at Paris Fashion Week as invited by the Fédération De La Haute Couture et de la Mode and elected by the Chambre Syndicale du Prêt-à-Porter.
A signature palette of white unites every collection, suffusing the textures with a cleansing clarity. Though the colour’s roots bear the weighty history of Irish craft and “women’s work” its purity bestows a fresh canvas upon which wearers can project their own meaning.
RÓISÍN PIERCE’s distinguishing experimental textures and silken three dimensional structures are developed by hand for each collection in an organic, fabric-first process that rebels against industry norms and sees the diligent manipulation of cloth steer the silhouette and effortless character of every garment. Each ornate swirling floret, crochet lattice, Irish hand crochet flower chain, smocked quatrefoil, and frothy satin scallop is a marker of the brand’s commitment to the exploration of the magnitude of craft - and each collection is an expansion of an enduring universe.