Katie Ann McGuigan SS21 Collection

Words by Thomas Brooks — Junior Fash­ion Editor

Katie Ann McGuigan’s con­tem­po­rary style has always been my virtue. Bet­ter still, I believe that her vision for SS21 will put a pan­dem­ic aside with ver­sa­til­i­ty, com­fort­a­bil­i­ty and most impor­tant­ly rel­e­vance. There are many aspects to her designs that are rel­e­vant, from sourc­ing local­ly with a con­scious effort to tap­ping into one’s envi­ron­ment and cul­ture to draw inspiration.

For SS21, lock­down must have had a light bulb effect for McGuigan as she uses her fam­i­ly his­to­ry along­side Irish pho­tog­ra­ph­er Tom Wood’s work doc­u­ment­ing life in the North of Eng­land. Gar­ments include Crepe de Chine and organ­za dig­i­tal print dress­es with match­ing silk scarves, sig­na­ture hand dyed casu­al sets and hand-print­ed leather jack­ets and trench coats. Her designs are heav­i­ly influ­enced by the pho­tog­ra­phy of Tom Wood with every-day scenes in the North of Eng­land in 1979, with McGuigan being drawn to the fur­nish­ings inside the homes of his sub­jects, inform­ing prints, graph­ics and art­works in her collection.

McGuigan’s SS21 col­lec­tion is relat­able, nos­tal­gic yet present and hope­ful of a sta­ble future.