CLAIRE OCONNOR

For Autumn Winter 2012 Claire O’Connor is a powerful exponent of the principle of “the art that disguises art.” Her vision is of the female form divine. The wearer comes first, but she appears in Claire’s hands to be lit from within.
Claire is a fashion practitioner – But her passion for and study of the structure of any given garment through careful and complex pattern cutting, is now the very thing that gives her freedom. What Lies Beneath might well be her modus operandi.
On the exterior Claire’s designs appear to flow with the body giving it a sublimely shapely form. The outward drape and colour conceal a masterly structure, over which the seemingly effortless flow takes place. Every single piece is planned and executed with a scientific precision. Constance Harris, Fashion Editor of the Sunday Independent once noted ´´Claire O’Connor is doing things that have been done in the great couture houses for many decades and she doesn’t even know the name of the techniques, but to achieve the effects she wants, she has worked her way towards them.´´
In other words before she is a designer- or an artist – she is a great craftsperson. Never stopping until the structure is correct.
As she develops as a designer, all her craftsmanship is for one purpose – to make the result look effortless, desirable, exciting and above all wearable.
In this collection, the outward drape (sometimes bias, sometimes straight) is, on occasion controlled by careful panelling, other times by extreme fabric contrasts - even by embellishment. At all times there is a powerful hidden structure which comes from her superb understanding of the art of pattern cutting.
Like a painter, her command of the figurative – at which she is always learning – allows her huge freedom to explore.
Claire O’Connor never ceases to push the boundaries of fashion. But it is her craft – and her respect for the craft - which allows her to do so.