When Bridgerton star Nicola Coughlan commissioned another Galway native, the knitwear designer Colin Burke, to make a bespoke design for the Irish premiere of the Netflix hit series earlier this year, the creamy hand-crocheted bodice top with silk ribbons created an immediate sensation. “It brought great traffic to my site and suddenly I was getting orders from the US and Brazil,” he says.
Vogue called Coughlan’s outfit “the look of the season”, and there were even requests for further takes on the top by the team for Bridgerton actor Luke Newton in the aftermath of the publicity and other orders for menswear adaptations of his familiar Maureen sweater.
Burke is no stranger to celebrity, with a client list that has included actor Kelly Rutherford, activist Sinéad Burke and film producer Roma Downey, who wore the Maureen sweater in ivory when presenting Pierce Brosnan with the Oscar Wilde award in Hollywood in March. Since graduating from NCAD in 2017, the designer has known how to make an impact, giving the traditional intricate Aran knit a new modernity and style.
His structural approach and trademark balloon sleeves have created an unmistakable silhouette that has earned him a fashion following at home and abroad among those who appreciate – and can afford – their luxurious textures and patterns, fashioned in a single colour and handcrafted by him and his team of hand-knitters mostly in Donegal.
His first all-yellow collection was inspired by his glamorous fashion buyer grandmother Maureen Burke, who loved daffodils; she continues to be an inspiration along with his passion for Irish knitting traditions and the signature cables, diamonds and honeycomb patterns that define Aran knitting.
For the past few months, he has been experimenting with those patterns and designing new ones with the knitters. “Not every knitter can write a pattern,” he says. “My strongest knitters are some of the older ones.”
New this season is a bold use of the colour red, a strong, powerful shade of crimson along with moss and olive-green tones drawn from studying shades used in the paintings of the American modernist artist Georgia O’Keeffe. Burke reminds me that before he went to NCAD, red was a colour he used to work with when painting with the artist Jim Kavanagh in Galway.
Four distinctive new knitwear styles are introduced in the collection Pier Road (the place in Enniscrone where his grandmother was born). Each is named after one of the group of women who were part of Maureen Burke’s social circle in Galway. They are the Cass Hoodie, featuring intricate cabling patterns; the Martini Sweater, fusing intricate Aran stitching with a modern oversize fit and raglan sleeve; the Sal Sleeveless in round and polo neck (cotton for summer, wool for winter); and the Finan coat, a three-quarter length handknit. New colours from Donegal Yarns are turf brown, berry red, stone charcoal and moss green. Existing styles such as his Maureen Sweater, Corrib Cardigan and Lyster polo neck come in these shades along with Italian wools in navy, black, white and two-tone grey.
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He’s not letting go of red, however, and will be designing the Christmas windows for Havana in Donnybrook this year, where owner Nikki Creedon, one of his biggest mentors, has been pivotal in supporting his rise in the fashion industry. The window will feature new commissioned pieces from Burke in Christmas Red yarn from Kerry Woollen Mills. colinburke.ie, havanaboutique.ie
Art direction and photography: Tetyana Maryshko
Model: Charlotte Moloney (Ros Model Management)
Styling: Havana
