Huge thank you to the talented Joanne Hynes for answering these questions for The Style Strutter! Check out her work at http://www.joannehynes.com/ and congratulations on her recent Woman of the Year Award, much deserved!! Enjoy!
Where do you find inspiration for your designs?
The spirit of the woman inspires me-shes complex, individualistic, beautiful, intense, serious, a little uptight, shes not breezy and free, she is strong and yet vulnerable, hard to figure out. Its a strange mix of beauty and sexiness in one. Theres more to her than meets the eye. Its a mix of many different references that form one feeling to create a Joanne Hynes look or a gesture of the kind of modern femininity I like to explore. Its a narrative that evolves in my head and I like to express it through clothing. Next season my concepts will be more focused and tighter and I will work on a concept rather then finding one as I go along-its harder the way I work right now as I don't start with one look.
Do you design with a certain type of woman in mind?
Yes all of the above. I am very excited about Winter 2010-I am working on that right now for next year. The collection will be ready in February 2010 to show and then in store in September 2010. I should really be talking about this season but I cant help myself as in my head I'm doing next year! She is a part of me when I was an art student and if I had to define it she would be the Irish actress Saoirse Ronan-I adore her so much. Shes young, cheeky, spends more time in her room listening to music, she reminds me of when I was her age. My girl for Winter 10 likes to try on pieces in her bedroom such as underwear and corset and she is finding herself and experimenting in the safety of her room. She is very interested in reading and loves history, art and nature. She hugely talented and creative and has a strong link with her Mother-shes older than her years mentally but has that kind of vulnerability and curiosity that comes with youth. She very interesting and quirky, she likes to experiment and mix things up. All of her friends wonder what she will do next!
Where do source your fabrics and materials?
We source from amazing Italian mills.
How many people work on your team?
I design everything myself and along the way our team in our manufacturing team get involved at the finishing stages. My team consists of Kamal Chana who is involved in everything, my assistant in our unit her name is Vandana. Then my Mum who is the master of colour selections-the warm black, or the "harder" black, the "soft" beige, the perfect shades or tones are discussed for hours between us at night time on the kitchen table when we are relaxed otherwise during the day I would never get anything done it takes a long time to select colour and fabrics and I like to do it at night. The company is small but other people are involved-our staff in Brown Thomas who run our concession are very important to us, our work experience girls are amazing and provide great energy.
How long does it take to make one of your amazing dresses?
The concept can take a day or two, then the sketch might be instant or longer depending on the concept. The fabric is designed by me so I will draw it first with pencil and do a lot of sketch book work. The we might experiment for about 2-3 weeks on fabric embroideries and dying colours doing smaller swatches and experiments until we get it right. Then the fit and the pattern could take about 2 weeks to perfect and many toiles to get the fit perfect. Our crystal dresses take up to 8 weeks and they are done very slowly with love and patience.
Do you follow fashion trends?
I don't try to but theres a zeitgeist out there. I would like to be a hermit for a year or two and work on a collection on my own with no outside influences. I don't allow magazines when working on drapes on the dummy. I prefer it to be instinctive.
What is your view on the Irish Fashion Industry and who would be your favourite Irish Designers?
I think the industry is fast and furious and hard to define so I don't try to. I admire John Rocha for his consistency of vision and his signature look that is expressed every season in a very Rocha way. Sharon Wauchob is great too she follows her look with honesty too. There are a lot of talents from Ireland and of course Philip Treacy is great-its ironic that we are both from the West of Ireland-he was born about 10 miles from where I was born.
Do you read fashion blogs? If so, which ones?
I am a total nerd so no I don't read any blogs I keep meaning to. I don't even know how to log onto Facebook! I just like watching movies and designing I don't read blogs but I am sure they are very important and will eventually take over the editorial and magazine world.
Where do you like to shop?
I hate food supermarkets with a passion-especially buying food or every day things. I never ever go to supermarkets and avoid them at all costs. I have massive rows with Kamal about that he always has to go on his own and for me. In fact its been a long time so I don't think I can tell the price of milk or washing powder or things like that. I generally like to shop for clothes when I am travelling-I buy a lot of pieces in Paris and in Delhi when I am away. I like vintage it reminds me of my youth, I love Prada boots and always buy a great pair every season or so. Shoes are important as we don't make them yet so I buy a lot of shoes and tights and interesting bits rather then clothing. I love agent provocateur underwear from a construction point of view. In Paris I like Colette, La Bon Marche and of course Merci and Marie Louisa. I love and adore cake shops. I spend all of my money on hotels as we travel every week! So I end up spending all of my money on the sleeping industry.
Do you wear alot of your own designs?
Yes all of the time, constantly. I don't have time to shop and if I cant wear my own then how can I expect other people to wear them. I wear Joanne Hynes because I believe in the clothes and the positive effects that have on your life in general, it makes me happy. When I experiment with my our work, putting it together in different ways, I see it in a new context. When I put things together it inspires my collections, I wear my clothes and I constantly "re-familiarise" myself with my work and the different facets of it.
Jewellery features strongly in your collections, how important do you think it is in an outfit? Its the language of building an outfit, it creates a narrative. I discovered that early on in my work, jewellery can really put a spin on the mundane or transform a look from day to evening. Things that don't go together traditionally but can form a look and an expression of femininity, memories and experiences. With Joanne Hynes the neckpieces express the individual-they are oversized, expressive, they are unusual, bold and enigmatic.
If you could dress anyone in the world who would it be?
I wish I could have dressed Michael Jackson on tour. I would have crystallised him all over. Also Madame Bijoux from 1920s Paris-she was amazing. She piles on her jewellery and wore it to fight her fading wealth and the loss of her status. I like Anna Paquin from True Blood she was also amazing in the Piano when she was little. Shes quirky and kind of odd and shes hard to figure out and I like that. Robyn Wright Penn is also amazing, she has something special alongside Jennifer Connolly and Sophia Coppola.
What are your fashion must-haves?
Over the knee knitted socks for day and night with dresses, my Joanne Hynes winter 09 leather armour jacket for day with everything, fierce "heavy weight" beaded short evening dresses worn with a turban. I wore that on Friday at the Women of the Year Awards. I adore turbans.
Do you have a favourite piece from your new collection?
Yes I am wearing my nappa leather dress over shirts or over all in one netting body suits.
Have you always known fashion design was the career for you?
I wanted to be an artist I was drawn to expressing myself. I never realised I could be a designer. My babysitter spent hours and hours with me when I was younger making dolls and I learned how to work a sewing machine very young. I was very skilled with my hands and knew how to sew very well by the age of seven. I spent all of my time as a child alone making things, i loved it, when I was a child I made a lot of things and this was very formative in retrospect. I had one brother and no sisters and we lived in the country side in the West of Ireland. My parents went out a lot at night and we stayed up very late on school nights-we watched a lot of movies at night time-so visually I was informed from a young age. I was usually tired at school because of this! I did everything in my power to avoid going to school I really hated it so I knew that I would do something creative. I fought being told what to do and rebelled in my own way.I think this comes through in my collection still.
For me, what really stands out with your garments is the quality and detail of each piece. How important is it to you to design something that will last forever?
It is paramount to the Joanne Hynes philosophy. I believe in luxury and quality, it really is the way forward. We have too many "things" and not enough luxury all of our pieces are quality and detail focused.
What advice would you give to someone trying to make it in the fashion industry?
Work really really hard and find yourself in this way. The more you do the closer you get to your self.
Any finally, what's next for Joanne Hynes? Global Domination:)?
I want to make art now, I love the idea of expressing myself instantly and sometimes fashion cant provide that for me. Its a lot of work that involves preparation and working out how to make the piece in production. Art is interesting to me because it has the ability to be instant and singular. I'm an artist anyhow but I work with the medium of fashion but that's a long conversation that we can have next time!
I am in love with this leather jacket!! Top of my Joanne Hynes wishlist, followed by one of her gorgeous button necklaces:)!