Robyn Lynch (Q9049)
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Robyn Lynch is a fashion house from FMD.
| Language | Label | Description | Also known as |
|---|---|---|---|
| English | Robyn Lynch |
Robyn Lynch is a fashion house from FMD. |
Statements
Robyn Lynch explores her family’s heritage and pushes innovation in technical menswear, and for fall she delivered a compelling amalgam of both these elements. Lynch’s younger sister, Adrianna, a professional Irish dancer, was the starting point for the collection. Reflecting on a childhood spent watching her sister compete in sports halls, Lynch remarked in a preview, “It was always a dramatic affair—not unlike what you’d see onDance Moms. But it was the costumes that really struck me; it’s the pageantry of it all, where there’s abundant glitz, embroidery, and symbolism.”In contrast, Lynch collaborated with CP Company, a revered Italian sportswear brand celebrated for its outstanding performance-wear—a dream she has harbored since her days at Westminster University studying fashion design. This collaboration yielded 10 one-of-a-kind pieces, crafted by splicing and repurposing items from CP Company’s archive, such as the iconic Goggle jacket, with deadstock fabrics to create striking, offbeat propositions. Fast-forward to the show, and what truly stood out was Lynch’s ability to fuse the elaborate style of Irish dance attire with the refinement of technical fabrications.As her runway moment unfolded in the intimate setting of the Old Selfridges Hotel show space, there were upcycled jackets with off-cut Aran-knit inserts, nylon windbreakers complete with contrast-piping details, and 3D merino wool hoodies. Some looks were paired with gorgeous tailored outdoor pants featuring dancing skirts adorned with Celtic knots and monogram embroidery, which were crafted in collaboration with John Carey Design, a label renowned for its expertise in Irish dance costumes.This season, Lynch introduced a line of sneakers in collaboration with Italian shoemaker Geox, a brand favored by her father. There are three variations in color combinations, blending technical brown suede with her distinctive blue nylon. While Lynch’s work may initially seem like straightforward gorpcore fashion, her true talent lies in merging technicality and performance with nuanced, heartfelt concepts.
17 February 2024
Robyn Lynch did what she always does to find inspiration: She turned to her roots. The designer had previously focused on the history of her family, but this time she wanted to discover more about her Irish heritage. “I’m not usually one to come up with elaborate concepts—it’s just not how I work—but the idea of honoring Irish culture has always appealed to me,” she said at a preview. “Of course, I wanted it to be embedded with my sense of humor, in the most charming way.”As a starting point to the collection, Lynch delved into the idea of what it means to be Irish, and all the pre-conceived notions that comes with it. “I was thinking about all of the silly things that you’d find on eBay: Shamrocks, leprechauns, pints of Guinness, and a lot of the color green—so I decided to make everything green,” she said. “Instead of feeling offended by the basic iconography and its stereotypes, I wanted to celebrate them all by using them as symbols of pride.”At the Old Selfridges Hotel show space with a harpist serenading the crowd, Lynch sent out an array of looks that encompassed four shades of green: pistachio, lizard, phthalo, and deep sage. As a finalist for this year’s Woolmark Prize,he made a majority of the pieces out of merino wool, a material that she’s explored numerous times over the years. “The fabric is actually good for the skin,” she explained. “It absorbs UV radiation and is totally biodegradable and renewable—plus it’s fire resistant and can transfer moisture vapors from the body.”The designer embraced her hallmarks with a lightness that felt new, from oversized hoodies and boxy fleece zip-ups, to spliced shirts, shorts, and tracksuit sets that merged knit with technical fabric. Overall, the collection felt polished andelevated—perhaps the confidence boost from the Woolmark Prize helped push her designs forward.
18 February 2023
Robyn Lynch hosted her second solo IRL show at the Truman Brewery space in East London. The designer often references her Irish heritage and looks to her own family’s wardrobe for inspiration. This time, Lynch’s starting point was a T-shirt that her mother, Susan Lynch, bought in Mallorca in 1983. “We basically turned a souvenir T-shirt into something luxurious with Italian yarn and jacquard knit that’s beautifully finished, but it has the cheeky slogan ‘I Got Crabs In Brighton’ across the front,” said the designer. “I wanted it to feel like it’s your first ever holiday, when you’re 16, where you’re not old enough to go out on your own, but old enough to make friends around the pool.”The mood in the room was electric, as models swiftly walked down the runway in one brilliantly cut sportswear look after another. But the devil is in the details with Lynch’s work: upon closer inspection, distorted yarn was used on jumpers as a lighter summer adaptation of traditional Irish Aran knit, and technical cargo pants made out of Irish linen with functional zips throughout were tailored to perfection. Other notable moments included toweling zip-up ponchos that emulate wrapping up after a dip in the sea, and waterproof recycled nylon in the form of see-through mini-shorts. Let’s not forget the Crocs, which every model wore in iterations ranging from yellow and red to olive, much like the palette of the collection itself.“After collaborating with Rapha and Columbia for some time–which were incredible and I learned so much about high-end technical practices–in this collection I wanted to focus on making it really fun,” said Lynch. Not only was it entertaining to witness in the flesh, the clothes felt more refined than ever.
12 June 2022
The cheers—really loud, enthusiastic cheers—at the end of Robyn Lynch’s first solo runway show might have come from a highly partisan crowd, but they were richly deserved. In fall 2019, Lynch produced her first two collections for Lulu Kennedy’s Fashion East out of her family home in Malahide, Ireland, before decamping to London just in time to cop the brunt of the pandemic. Her collections since, all virtual, served as a further period of incubation in which she developed her exploration of old-school Irish youth culture and worked with sportswear companies Rapha and Columbia to refine her splice-and-dice upcycling aesthetic.Today all that came together in the Old Selfridges Hotel Newgen space with a menswear collection that, while sparse, showed rich potential. There were 10 new pieces based on mashed-up Columbia coats, and these you could heartily visualize being embraced by the ironically normcore clubbing constituency that is at least Lynch’s imagined base—and which will return to dance floors soon. Aside from this were apparently straightforward garments punched with twisty details: five-pocket pants embroidered (a little clumsily) with silhouettes of Ireland; eBay-sourced vintage hiking pants cut cleverly with new sections and details; and mysteriously abstracted cycling tops.Lynch reminds me of an Irish Junya Watanabe, a mixologist with an ironic eye who transforms dignified dressed-down normcore staples into pieces of if-you-know-you-know ornamental display. All of those sportswear behemoths out there—Hi-Tec, Umbro, Asics, Prince, Ping, and so many more—would benefit massively from a Lynch remix. Give her partners, and this designer will shine.
19 February 2022