The Catholic Magdalene Laundries represent a dark and sad chapter in the history of Ireland: founded with a charitable intent, the Irish convent laundries became notorious for exploiting women considered to be in "moral danger". In the early days there were mainly prostitutes coming in, but then the covents started admitting more single women who had children born out of wedlock and were rejected by their families.
Treated like outcasts, the women in the Madgdalene convents were usually mistreated, forced to perform hard labour without compensation and led a life of punishment and confinement, while their families and the Catholic church approved. The stories of the women working in the Magdalene Laundries inspired moving biographical films and novels, but certainly not fashion collections. At least until recently.
Irish textile designer Róisín Pierce moved indeed from the Magdalene Laundries for her collection, "Mná i bhláth "(Women in Bloom).
Pierce graduated from the National College of Art and Design, Ireland with a BA Hons in Textile Design in 2016 and then interned with luxury womenswear brands in Dublin and Copenhagen, developing an interest for experiental silhouettes and textile elaborations.
In a previous collection, entitled "Man Repellent", Pierce explored the theme of the male gaze and its impact on women's bodies, offering a way to escape from it through garments that revolved around the beauty Vs repulsion dichotomy with distorted and unflattering silhouettes, characterised by bulbous and bulging forms (a concept reminiscent of Rei Kawakubo's "Body Meets Dress, Dress Meets Body" collection).
In more recent collections the designer manipulated fabrics, creating 3D surfaces gathering and weaving textiles. In some cases she borrowed these techniques from traditional crafts, in others she tried to come up with new constructions and embellishments to enrich the surfaces of her pieces.
Pierce's "Mná i Bhláth" (Women in Bloom) pays tribute to the women who were sent to the Magdalene Laundries. This collection and other designs that Pierce recently developed come in just one colour - white - a symbol hinting at babies' baptism tunics, First Communion dresses and wedding gowns.
The women in bloom theme is also a reference to losing one's virginity, while the materials and sculpted surface elaborations call to mind the handcrafted textiles and techniques such as Irish lace, smocking and the embroideries of religious garments, that the women were obliged to do at the Magdalene convents. Working was intended as a way to atone for their sins and past mistakes, but the women never financially benefited from making these pieces as the money went to the church.
Pierce received the Public Prize at the 34th edition of the Hyères International Festival and she also won the Prix des Métiers d'Art for the best collaboration between one of the ten finalists of the festival and one of Chanel's ten Métiers d'art ateliers (the prize will allow her to create a new item that will be presented at next year's Festival).
Pierce worked with Maison Michel, creating white ruched broderie Anglaise hats, and while the latter will complement her "Mná i Bhláth" collection, the two prizes she got could be interpreted as a tribute to all the anonymous marginalised and stigmatised women who worked at the Magdalene Laundries.
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