Ireland in the 80s: The Full Picture | Fashion
Shoulder pads, bold colour and a new generation of Irish designers
Writer Robert O'Byrne, The Irish Aesthete, sits down with designer John Rocha to talk about what Ireland wore in the 1980s, who was making it and how a country short on money still found its style.
Inspired by our exhibition at the National Photographic Archive, Temple Bar, marking 40 years since Live Aid, Ireland in the 80s: The Full Picture takes a fresh look at the decade.
John Rocha is a fashion designer based in Dublin, where he set up the Chinatown label in the 1980s. He was British Fashion Awards Designer of the Year in 1993 and was appointed CBE in 2002. He has also designed crystal ranges for Waterford.
Robert O’Byrne is a writer and lecturer specialising in the fine and decorative arts, and the author of more than a dozen books. These include Luggala Days: The Story of a Guinness House, The Irish Aesthete: Buildings of Ireland, Lost and Found and The Irish Country House: A New Vision. A former Vice-President of the Irish Georgian Society, he is a trustee of the Apollo Foundation.
