The Armagh designer realised the translucent property of linen was ideal for recreating the ethereal look of characters of her childhood Young Irish designer Annie Leona “My mother would read Irish folklore to me when I was little,” Annie Leona says. The tales of fairy forts — raised circles surrounded by trees, stones or mushrooms where it’s said fairies have danced — caught her imagination. “I believed in fairies when I was wee.
I always thought our folklore was such an interesting part of our culture.” Now designing her own fashion line, Leona has ripped imagery from the pages of those childhood story books and brought it to life. “When I was little the pictures of fairies in my books always had this ghostly opacity to their clothing and wings.
I thought linen was the perfect fabric to recreate that. As it’s a thin, almost-transparent fabric you can change the opacity by layering it and allowing the light to shine through the fabric. The ethereal dawn and dusk piece is a good example of this.
” Ethereal Dusk Blouse, £350; Ethereal Dusk Skirt, £650. Modelled by Aria Moazzen. Photo: Sam Allen.
Leona keeps her inspiration close to home in more ways than one. “My childhood home, in Armagh, was an old tailor’s cottage. My dad had lifted up the carpet and discovered the bolts where the linen loom used to be.
It inspired my recent work, The Cottage Collection.” Leona’s womenswear collection features feminine and romantic clothing made with Irish linen.
