My name is Daniel Fahy, and I am a fashion designer from Dublin, Ireland. My process centres handcraft and storytelling in the creation of a gothic fashion narrative. My collections are inspired by my love for dark literature and my friends and idols within the gothic and alternative communities, the clothing illustrating gothic fashion stories that I have conceptualised over time. Although dark in aesthetic, my pieces and the process of their creation are very fun in their nature, and deeply rewarding to create and wear. My graduate collection 'Reachra' is a conceptual gothic womenswear collection that retells the story of the Tragedy of the RMS Tayleur (1854), a ship that sank off the coast of my small Irish town of Donabate in the height of the Victorian era. Over 200 women perished in the shipwreck, in large part due to the extreme fashion of the time of constricting corsets and heavy layered petticoats. Through combining this clothing with modern life saving fashion, as well as elements of the ship and grief that these women faced, their revenge against the fashion and systematic injustice that killed them is laid bare. ‘Reachra’ represents my wish to design a better fate for the women who perished in the Tragedy of the RMS Tayleur, and I hope that I have honoured them with this collection.
