Wear Her Story: Exploring heritage, building friendships

Young women from Belfast to Dublin came together for Wear Her Story's first field trip, exploring Irish textile and fashion heritage.

Led by Dundalk Institute of Technology in partnership with Glow NI, the day started at the National Museum of Ireland with an insightful talk from Alex Ward, Curator of Textiles and Fashion, on the Ib Jorgensen retrospective exhibition. The exhibition features around forty garments celebrating his designs and the beautiful beading and embroidery of his first wife, Patricia. There is such a wealth of storytelling and heritage behind these pieces.

The young women also learned about the work of Sybil Connolly and Irene Gilbert and visited The Way We Wore exhibition on fashion through the years. We finished at the National Gallery of Ireland, looking at how Irish art and painting, particularly looking at how textiles and pattern are captured in clothing on canvas.

Over the coming year, the young women will turn that inspiration into their own work and reimagine heritage in 3D printing, digital fashion and design, AR try-ons, VR worlds, and co-created stories rooted in Irish textile heritage. Throughout the project have the chance to share their own voices and stories. Using creative technologies, they will build digital capacity and skills for the creative economies.

Thank you to Alex Ward for a fantastic talk, and to some of the artists who joined us and will be working with the group over the coming year. It was a great day out. Wear Her Story is a PEACEPLUS Changemakers project, funded by the Special EU Programmes Body (SEUPB) - European Funding

Jackie Toal the project lead for Wear Her Story highlighted that “visits to museums and research are vital to build inspiration and knowledge as well as ensure the young women build confidence and make new friends.”