“When I opened my shop in Temple Bar 22 years ago, my first customer wanted a dress for her 21st to look like a tree. So I made a corset that looked like bark and a fitted skirt like the rest of a tree,” designer Claire Garvey says with a smile.
Since then, the award-winning ex-NCAD designer, who holds a first-class master’s degree in costume design from Moscow’s elite VGIK University, has quietly created her own freewheeling, flamboyant design world. Her corner shop in Temple Bar remains a landmark.
Her list of achievements is formidable. Fans are drawn to her colourful, whimsical and eccentric creations, all made by hand. Customers range from music legends like Grammy award-winning Nile Rogers whom she dressed for the X Factor, the Oscars and Elton John’s parties, to actors such as Kimberley Davies, who will wear a Garvey dress to the Trevor Nelson Soul Special at the Royal Albert Hall in December, and most recently Siobhán McSweeney of Derry Girls.
Other well-known names who have worn her dresses include Eimear Noone, for whom she has made outfits for many world stages, including most notably when Noone served as the first female conductor at the Oscars in 2020. American rapper Dali Voodoo and singer Pink have also worn fashion pieces by Garvey.
“Most of my fans are people who want something different,” she says. “Everything I do is one-off and quite labour intensive, but I love doing that.”
This collection, entitled Stained Glass, is made from thousands of recycled plastic lids, which have been cut and hand-dyed with organic stained-glass dye.
For her inspiration, Garvey drew from the work of two celebrated stained-glass artists – our own Harry Clarke and the Ethiopian artist Afewek Tekle.
“I wanted to research their similarities and differences, to understand their ideas and techniques, and integrate them into my wearable art. I wanted to honour their work and highlight how their art is relevant to a modern audience within a new cultural integrated vision, and to show how waste can be reimagined,” says Garvey. The shoot was done in collaboration with an African team and modelled by Miss Universe Ireland Aishak Akorede, a law graduate from Leixlip.
Most of Garvey’s collection shown here can be seen at her shop at 6 Cow’s Lane, Temple Bar, Dublin 8, where she also rents her pieces for events “because I want everyone to be able to wear them”.
Visit www.clairegarvey.com
Model: Miss Universe Ireland Aishah Akorede, assistants Arturas Gastiliuk, Malia Smith.
Photographer: Tessy Ehiguese, Tessy Media https://tessymedia.my portfolio.com
Technical assistant: Nikolay Lakovlev
Make up: Facesvbyihuaku
Shot at Evans Doherty Studio
