Swanzy Land – the Spring/Summer 22 collection pays homage to the late pioneering
modernist artist Mary Swanzy, an Irish landscape and genre artist. Her work involved many
different styles, each of which she interpreted and transformed in her own way. Inspired by
the elements of cubism, fauvism and futurism in her work, I embodied these styles by
designing and creating with bold colours, cut-outs and geometric shaping.
Swanzy travelled extensively and painted on every journey. One voyage that is unique in
Irish art is her time spent in Hawaii. There is no previous record of an Irish artist undertaking
such a journey and returning to exhibit the results. I was particularly drawn to the paintings
she created in Hawaii, which are bursting with the multiple colours and textures of the
Hawaiian rainforests.
The raw canvas shows through in some of these paintings, and this as well as its
sustainability inspired me to use Ramie as a fabric in this collection. The texture of Ramie
looks almost like a blank canvas. I painted directly onto the fabric by hand for the bodice of
the painted dress, and I also used ramie as one of the fabrics in the cubist dress. The dense
nature of the greenery inspired me to create the jungle skirt, which can be ruched in several
areas by a drawstring to create an effect similar to the canopy of the tropical broadleaf
forestry depicted in Swanzys’ work.
Shop the Swanzy Land collection.