Christmas is almost here with another month to go and here in Singapore, shops and malls have all geared up and decked with sparkly Christmas decorations. I personally enjoy sipping my favourite Toffee Nut Latte from Starbucks and just gazing at the Christmas decoration like a cat who sees a laser point. Oooo, that sparkly shiny thing…..

Back to reality here, Irish designer, Sorcha O’Raghallaigh created another form of sparkle in her S/S 14 collection “Forget Me Not”, where she uses the humble safety pin in a couture-ly manner. The Irish fashion designer has risen to the top of London’s fashion industry in a just few short years, dressing icons such as Lady Gaga and Kate Moss. Beyoncé is probably the most recent big name to appear in one of O’Raghallaigh’s dresses, which can be seen in the preview for her new video “Mine”. O’Raghallaigh a Central Saint Martins alumni looks upon to Catholic church as her source of inspiration. Her recent S/S 14 collection features a colour palette of cardinal red, midnight blue and pale grey decorated with intricate hand-crafted beading and accessories such as gold and silver crowns, necklaces and beaded stockings, interestingly all constructed out of safety pins.

Decadent and orante, the pain staking-ly put together collection despite rather heavy handed on the ornamentation exudes a certain ethereal lightness. Very much similar to the works of Jean Paul Gaultier and Christian Lacroix, where the usage of Catholic iconogary is heavily used, O’Raghallaigh pretty much stays true to herself. Hand-made, edgy and a sense of melancholy, she has displayed her with couture sensibilities in a utterly romantic and visually striking collection.

The humble safety pin has been liberated.

 Image Source: sorchaoraghallaigh.com