Art Direction — Zalando
The fashion industry doesn't make torso casts for big curvy bodies. So Sinéad O'Dwyer made her own and won the Zalando Visionary Award of 2024.
The brand in one sentence: she creates for people that look like her friends, the women she sees on the street, because the system doesn't design for them and she refuses to accept that as a given. The Irish designer, London-based, won the 2024 Zalando Visionary Award and I went to her atelier to understand the practice before bringing it to Copenhagen Fashion Week. Her bespoke technique of Shibari-inspired knitwear is worth a highlight: she create pieces that reference bondage made in stretchy, yielding material that hugs the body until fat and flesh push through the openings. The reality of the female body put right in front of you: tangible, alive, raw, graphic, completely honest.
The collection was called "Everything Opens To Touch." Our first time making an outdoor Zalando CPHFW show, we chose Opera Park's garden right by the sea. Copenhagen weather in August offers no guarantees but we committed to the lush landscape and were graced with sunshine. The set: two giant sculptures made from 3D scans of Sinéad's own custom body casts (one bright green, one brown figure lying down) built to such large scale to scream outloud what the industry usually refuses. Another example of Sinéad commitment to diversity was casting Lucy Edwards, a blind broadcaster journalist, who walked the runway with her guide dog, a first ever for CPHFW. While the industry was quietly sliding back to heroine chic Sinéad O'Dwyer was the single loud voice saying: not under my watch.