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| A fine, hand-worked creation by Roisin Pierce at her AW25 show in Paris. Photograph: Andrea Heinsohn |
Amid the gilded salons of the Irish
Embassy, Róisín Pierce's presented her latest collection, during the Autumn/Winter 2025-26 season of Paris Fashion Week. The designs evoked an ethereal and poignant atmosphere, an exploration of beauty,
transience, and the fleeting nature of art and memory. In a fashion landscape
often driven by excess and spectacle, Pierce’s work stands as a meditation on
impermanence, drawing inspiration from literature, nature, and the intricate
craftsmanship of Irish lace and crochet, writes Antonio Visconti. Photography by Andrea Heinsohn and Elli Ioannou.
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The delicate, diaphanous creations of Roisin Pierce. Photograph: Elli Ioannou |
IRISH designer Róisín Pierce melds contemporary textile innovation with traditional techniques. Her latest
collection shown in Paris continues this experimentation, this time evoking the fragile and fleeting beauty of
snowflakes and spring blossoms. Diaphanous designs in soft silks with intricate pintucks in white or midnight blue evoke her signature poetic aesthetic.
At the heart of the new collection, called Nothing Pure Can Stay, is an exploration of
ephemerality. The title itself nods to the inevitability of
change, a theme the designer deftly weaves into her designs through delicate
craftsmanship and the interplay of textures.
Inspired by the works of Vladimir
Nabokov and Sylvia Plath, as well as the photography of Wilson Bentley, who captured the transient beauty of snowflakes, Pierce’s designs reflect
a desire to preserve the fleeting. Handcrafted snowberries in silk and tulle,
flowing pintucked petals, and embroidered forget-me-nots all suggest this
longing for permanence in an impermanent world.
One of fashion's more beguiling designers, Róisín Pierce melds together historical craft and conceptual storytelling. A
Dublin-born designer with a foundation in textile innovation, she first emerged
on the global stage after winning the Chanel-supported Festival d’Hyères
in 2019. Her devotion to technique: intricate
hand-smocking, dense ruffles and pintuck
details so fine they resemble embroidery is an antidote to an industry obsessed with speed
and reinvention, Pierce instead embraces slowness, refinement, and meticulous artistry.
At the heart of the new collection, called Nothing Pure Can Stay, is an exploration of ephemerality.
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Transparency and opacity added subtle contrasts to designs in the collection. Photograph: Elli Ioannou |
Her previous collections have often drawn from Irish history
and femininity, exploring themes of resilience and fragility through fabric
manipulation.
The stark, sculptural purity of Patience (SS23) and the
intimate intricacies of Beneath the Embers (AW24) laid the groundwork
for Nothing Pure Can Stay. Here, she is not only preserving heritage techniques but also trying to distill time itself into fabric, capturing fleeting beauty in stitches that
refuse to unravel.
The collection takes its title from the Robert Frost poem Nothing
Gold Can Stay, a meditation on the passing nature of beauty. Pierce, too,
is drawn to the tension between creation and decay. Her inspiration also stems from Marcel Proust’s ruminations on memory. Each reference reinforces
the fragility she seeks to encapsulate, beauty that is heightened because it is
slipping away.
This philosophy manifests in diaphanous textiles and silk velvet transformed by smocking, creating rippling textures. Elsewhere, sheer
tulle cascades from the shoulders of sculptural gowns, evoking melting ice or
the last wisps of mist. Cotton lace's soft texture is a counterpoint to Pierce’s tailoring.
Previous collections drew from Irish history and femininity, exploring themes of resilience and fragility
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Traditional handmade crochet and pintucking are given new forms. Photograph: Andrea Heinsohn |
Clusters of hand-stitched silk snowberries bloom along the
bodices of dresses, inspired by the fleeting perfection of winter’s first
frost.
One gown, constructed entirely from embroidered spirals, evokes the
swirling imprint of frost on a windowpane. In another, layers of soft cotton
and translucent organza mimic the delicate, flaking edges of a withering
petal.
The collection’s color palette is primarily composed of
shades of white and blue.
Smocked silk velvet, falls of French embroidery and Japanese cotton lace, created garments that look almost weightless.
The interplay of transparency and opacity, such as sheer organza
layered over densely ruffled skirts, further emphasized the duality of delicacy
and strength that defines Pierce’s ethos.
Pierce’s process is as painstaking as it is avant-garde. Instead of hardware or fastenings in her garments, the designers prefers to rely on textile manipulation to construct shape and structure. This practice, rooted in
Irish handcraft traditions, has become a defining element of her work. But
rather than copying historical techniques, she reimagines them.
Interplays of transparency and opacity, like sheer organza layered over densely ruffled skirts, emphasized a duality of delicacy and strength
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Stephen Jones created whimsical headpieces, including this one with white cotton snowberries and bows. Photograph: Andrea Heinsohn |
In
Nothing Pure Can Stay, Irish crochet, once a symbol
of domestic labour, finds new expression in magnified lace motifs. Pintucks, an enduring signature in Pierce’s collections are combined with artisanal
embroidery techniques.
Pierce’s commitment to innovation extends to her choice of
materials. She sources deadstock fabrics from couture houses, ensuring that
each piece is not only an artistic statement but also an act of preservation.
Italian silk, Japanese cotton lace, and French embroidery are all designed into new and unexpected forms, demonstrating that even the most traditional
elements can be redefined.
This season, the designer also introduced several key collaborations for the collection. She worked with British milliner Stephen Jones, who created a
series of snowberry hats to complement the dreamlike atmosphere of the
garments.
These headpieces, adorned with bows and delicate fabric berries,
evoke a sense of childhood nostalgia and enchantment. With Jones, she creates a collection of dreamlike
headpieces, halos and coronets of white cotton snowberries, ribbons looping into
infinity.
A petalled cap, topped with tiered bows, hovers between delicacy and
surrealism, while playful ribbon ties flutter across the lips and eyes, adding
an air of mystery.
The designer's Irish crochet, lacework, and smocking not only honors traditional techniques but also reinterprets them for a modern audience
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French brand Polène collaborated with Pierce to create this sphere-shaped handbag. Photograph: Andrea Heinsohn |
Meanwhile,
Pierce’s collaboration with the French accessories brand Polène introduced a
selection of sculptural handbags crafted in Ubrique, Spain. These leather bags,
designed in geometric box and sphere silhouettes, mirror the intricate
detailing of the Irish designer's garments, linking fashion and fine artisan works.
Nothing Pure Can Stay also demonstrates the enduring power of handmade craft in an industry dominated by mass production. Pierce’s Irish
crochet, lacework, and smocking not only honors traditional techniques but also
reinterprets them for a modern audience.
The ambience of the Paris presentation at the Irish Embassy. was underscored by a carefully
curated soundtrack by Simon Parris, blending instrumental, vocal, and
spoken-word elements.
Pierce’s own voice recited passages from Nabokov and
Plath, interwoven with traditional Irish melodies sung by her mother. Layered with environmental sounds, rain against glass, the
hush of wind through an open door, it becomes a meditation on memory and loss,
underscoring the collection’s themes of fleeting beauty. This soundscape heightened the show’s emotional
impact, creating a multisensory experience that reinforced its themes of
memory and loss.
In an industry that often glorifies the fast and disposable, Róisín Pierce has managed to create something more lasting
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Heirlooms in the making: the designer aims to capture something lasting in her white, gossamer creations. Photograph; Elli Ioannou |
Since founding her eponymous brand in 2020, Pierce has
steadily gained recognition for her unique approach to design. Her attention to textile development and her commitment to slow, intentional
creation have earned her accolades, including the Chanel Métiers d'Art award
and a finalist position in the prestigious LVMH Prize.
With this collection, Pierce continues to build upon
her previous work while exploring different ideas and themes. Her exploration of temporality is an attempt to capture the intangible and hold it just a moment
longer. Her gossamer gowns. some adorned with
cascading tulle petals, linger in the mind.
At the heart of Nothing Pure Can Stay is the idea of
legacy, not just in craft, but in the way we hold onto beauty as it slips
through our hands. Pierce’s garments are heirlooms in the truest sense, not
only in their painstaking construction but in their refusal to succumb to
passing trends.
The fingers that trace the embroidered forget-me-not motifs will
one day still, the shoulders that bear feather-light tulle will eventually
falter but the garment, with all its delicate strength, will endure.
In an
industry that often glorifies the fast and disposable, Róisín
Pierce has managed to create something more lasting. Through her reverence for
craft, poetic sensibility, and commitment to beauty, she
reminds us that the act of creation ensures that memories can endure in other more tangible forms.
