ISLE - Jewellery Inspired By Ireland and Formed By Japanese Aesthetics

On my first Galway Fashion Trail last November, I saw, and fell in love with, the delicate jewellery of ISLE. The brainchild of two Northern Irish sisters - Ger, who lives in Tokyo, and Helen, who lives in Belfast - it is a brand inspired by the tales and natural beauty of Ireland and informed by the minimalist aesthetic and emphasis on craftsmanship of Japan. Each piece is handmade in Ireland and then beautifully presented in high quality packaging from Japan.

I wanted to know more about these two sisters and the magic jewellery that they produced; their thoughts on design and Irish design, in particular; their inspirations; and why it's important to support smaller makers.

*

Moi: How did ISLE come about? Can you tell us a little about its journey as a brand?

Ger: Starting some form of jewellery business was something that I'd thought about a lot over the years, ever since I started making jewellery for high school art projects. Although I loved painting, drawing and photography, I was especially drawn to metals and the mixed media possibilities of jewellery. So, I studied Metalsmithing & Jewellery at the University of Ulster in Belfast, but after, decided to become an Art teacher in England. After a few years there, my partner/boyfriend and I wanted to experience living further abroad and decided to have a go at living in Tokyo and here we still are.

ISLE has evolved a lot since the original idea that came about from a discussion with a Japanese friend who worked in the jewellery business in Tokyo. We planned to create jewellery that would tell stories of Ireland, introducing Irish culture to people that probably hadn't heard much about it.

Unfortunately, my Japanese friend wasn't able to continue with the initial progress we had made. So, instead of giving up, I turned to my sister Helen, who has long been a part of my design process - even coming in on the night before my final degree show to sit on the floor sanding and painting the display furniture for my installation. We work well together and are constantly sending images back and forth and bouncing ideas around.

Her main medium is textile but she has quickly learnt a lot about Metalsmithing and works closely with our talented Belfast-based makers.

My whole family is involved in ISLE in some form now and have been an amazing help.



Why are you so inspired by Ireland?

I guess living so far from home in an incredibly different culture, makes you think about where you come from and you look at things you took for granted with fresh eyes. I regularly go back home to Co. Down and yet it hits me every time I arrive; the landscape, the people, the atmosphere.



Who do you admire? What things inspire you?

Everything. I have about a thousand design ideas passing through my head a day. I have to tell myself to be quiet and focus on one thing (or else Helen will tell me Neutral Face). Sometimes you see a building that could be translated into a necklace or an accidental collection of colours that would make a beautiful print pattern. I have a crazy amount of photos that I've captured hoping that I'll go back to them someday and create something original from them

I admire the people that, in an age of mass production and fantastic digital machinery, are opting for a slow, focused and considered way creating. The joy of craftsmanship is not totally lost and I believe appreciation for it is growing again in Ireland.



Who is your customer?

We are our customers really. We want to offer contemporary jewellery that presents something deeper than passing fashion. Jewellery that is both stylish and has lasting quality, that reflects modern trends but that can be a future heirloom.



Why should people support smaller makers?

Supporting smaller makers allows for diversity, for uniqueness



If you could do anything you wanted - no limitations - what would ISLE do?

We don't have huge crazy ambitions for ISLE, we just want to keep on designing and making and hope that we can share what we do with people who feel the same as us. Sorry that's a boring answer, isn't it? But it's true.



What are you most proud of?

Surviving this far.

(All images belong to ISLE and are reproduced here with permission.)

*

Liked this post? Want more?

Follow me here using google friend connect or bloglovin.

Or follow me on tumblr - twitter - facebook - instagram.

COS SS16

COS' press days are my absolute favourite each season - I can't wait for them to come around. And, each season, I walk away with an idealised wishlist of garments that's never going to come to pass. Not least of all because the pieces showcased often encapsulate the feeling of the collection but are a little too avant-garde to make it into many stores in their ultimate form. Instead, we're normally given more readily palatable versions.

However, if there were ever a collection where the feeling and sensibility was the key component of the garments, it's COS SS16. Upon first glance, the words diaphanous and pure immediately come to mind. As per, there's a lot of thought going on and a wide array of sources and inspiration but that doesn't necessarily read in the garments. Instead, you are overwhelmed by that aura of purity and the background noise of reference and witty interplay remains firmly in the background.

The white, blush and sand and stone tones, the textures, silhouettes and lengths display an obvious awareness of traditional Japanese clothing and 20th century Japanese art movements. Renate Aller's photographs of sand dunes and the hand-drawn lines of Jan Schoonhoven's minimalism are both quoted inspirations. Origami techniques, authentic welding using 20th century machinery, man-made and natural fabrics and painstaking detail are all employed in the collection and, yet, calm perseveres.

Calm is the underlying theme of the collection - or, rather, reinterpreting calm. There is a lot going on but it is all quiet interventions, expert tweaking of the familiar to create something that is a balance of both contemporary and classic.

Three themes run through: drapes and folds, craftsmanship and re-inventing. And through these themes we see seemingly simple garments with a lot more going on than what meets the eye, garments that focus on the process of making and which are involved in an inseparable dialogue with the human form.

Draping, folds, cut-outs, low backs and thin, wispy materials all play at hiding and revealing the body and the contrast with the textures of the fabrics and subtle flashes of flesh makes for highly sensuous clothes in the most literal of ways: the senses themselves are engaged, sight in the glimpses, sound in the swishes and touch in the textures. These are clothes made for bodies, for the interaction with human forms to make them truly come alive.

This is also true of the menswear where the palate and sensibility is a little more weighty, in tones of grey and in fabrics that are more solid and less floaty. However, this same sense of playing with the senses, playing with the form is still ever-present. As is craftsmanship. A crisp driving coat is made of a jacquard which is not merely an embellishment but embossed right into the fabric, weighing it down so that it skims forms, interacts more closely with them instead of hanging away. Another coat in a transparent grey, again, plays with the body in the revealing of flashes of flesh normally hidden away in such garments and is welded together using 1950s machinery in England. The devil is in the details, each piece tells a story, is more than itself. Gendering of garments and cuts also comes into question as necklines such as deep boat necks come into play, revealing areas we are used to seeing on women - the collar-bone and shoulders - but which are somewhat surprising and alluring given the unfamiliar context.

Reinvention runs throughout the collections but is, perhaps most obvious in the denim. Not only is it being presented as a plausible formalwear option and being given new silhouettes and contexts, it is also being physically reimagined. One of the most striking displays were the accessories that, as first seemed just very COS, restrained and pretty, but were actually man-made compressed recycled denim embossed stones in silver settings...Kinda mind-boggling, right?

COS SS16 may be their most editorial collection yet. As I said, what is key is the sensibility and the concepts at play, more than the clothes themselves - the debates, the discussions and questions that they encourage. But before the collection can float away entirely as something that is too conceptual and all idea and no substance, it is weighed down by dresses, shirts, suiting and knitwear that (much of) will fit immediately into wardrobes and an emphasis on making and craftsmanship that almost puts some couture to shame.




























































(In the Kerlin Art Gallery with food by Black Sheep Foods)

*

Liked this post? Want more?

Follow me here using google friend connect or bloglovin.

Or follow me on tumblr - twitter - facebook.