This season’s offering comes as a natural evolution from SS22, as it builds on Robyn’s partnership with the outdoor specialists at Columbia by exploring innovative design practises whilst keeping with its sustainable roots. After creating a full collection out of Columbia’s deadstock pieces for her last outing, Robyn decided to reposition this partnership into the category of outerwear.
The 10 collaborative pieces for this season show evidence of elevating the reworking process and maximising the sustainability potential of existing deadstock. The designer is using the outerwear brand’s innovative ‘OUTDRY’ technology in environmentally conscious materials as the base for the trademark shapes.
The use of new technical fabrics, including nylons made out of ocean waste, is contrasted against the reflective thread and beaded embroidery, which add a sense of sensuality to traditional codes of masculine sportswear. A symbol of Irish pride, the embroidery shape references her home island and creates semi-abstract prints across the garments.
As always, Robyn is looking within her personal world when establishing references for her silhouettes. The Lynch family wardrobe continues to be a core inspiration, with several pieces being elevated from sentimental objects of emotional importance into contemporary show pieces. Four of her dad’s Dublin football jerseys from the 1990s and noughties were scanned and inputted into an algorithm created by Synflux, a speculative fashion lab based in Japan. Through their innovative, digital-first design practice, they distorted the scans and transformed them into trompe l’oeil intarsia knits made in cotton yarns.
Textured bouclé and fine cotton knits show a range in density and thickness of her forms, while a signature merino wool jumper comes back in a refined version of a piece from her graduate collection. Robyn’s love of developing new and unique fabrications became key in the way she designs her clothes. For example, the lab-dipped nylons are custom dyed into saturated Pantone shades, and later cut into cargo trousers and tracksuit-style bottoms. Completing the signature monochrome looks in the seasonal Pantone shades of chartreuse, electric blue, brown and grey are knitted balaclavas and customised Columbia winter boots, adding to the slope-ready energy of the collection.
Styling: Ben Schofield, Casting: Jonathan Johnson, Make-up: Jimmy Owen Jones, Hair: Sophie Jane Anderson at Future Rep, Shoes: Columbia, Music: OR:LA, Show Notes: Dino Bonačić, Graphic Design: Other Office, Studio Team: Holly Francis, Theodore O’Shaughnessy, Mariam Patel, Csilla Pelyvas, Savannah Ford, Patrick Kane, Production: Blonstein Creative Production, Press: Village, Styling Assistants: Kit Swann, Poppy Norton, Dominik Radomski, Casting Assistants: Damon Hunte, Ignacio De Tiedra
Special Thank You To: Ben Schofield, Jonathan Johnson, Jimmy Jones, Sophie Anderson, Dino Bonačić, Lamayra Hanley Evans, Monet Aluko, Sarah Mower and the NEWGEN judging panel, studio team, past and present interns, Columbia, Eoin Tracey, Catherine Drury, Joe Murgatroyd, Orlagh Dooley, Simon Sweeney, Shauna Buckley, OS Studio, Nick Moss, Dr Barbara Sturm, Emma Murray, Andrew Nuding, Morgan Eve Russell, Joe Cruz, Baldoyle Print, Mary Nally, Jake Harper, Soot, Synflux, Amy Price, Arjun Tatla, Racheal Cooper, Barry Taylor, Mam, Dad, Enya & Adi