TD 1
HEMLINES THE THREADS THAT BIND Some two years sin
ce Snàithe spellbound its first batch of viewers, director Ciara Nic Chormaic returns with a compelling recount of Perry Ogden’s oeuvre. words Amelia O’Mahony-Brady When Irish fashion circles first caught wind of a documentary series charting the sector’s manifold but undersold facets, a feverish excitement ensued. Despite the strides of many a designer, most overseas commentary tends to portray Ireland as a country sans dress sense or intrinsic taste, whose all-too-rare sartorial triumphs are hitched to all-too-few talented escapees. As I have come to discover, such canards are not confined to foreign chatter. The 2018 arrival of said docuseries, Snáithe (whose title as Gaeilge, signifying ‘thread’, reveals the show’s TG4 ties), thus proved essential on two fronts: from the outset of its first episode, which deep-dived into that dress sense debate, Irish Design advocates – be they consumers, critics or both – found themselves galvanised, whilst naysayers were graciously schooled. Dialogue-sparking topics, ranging from menswear to silk weavers, were pondered by a spirited cast of interviewees; their enthusiasm bolstered by presenter Ciara O’Doherty’s thoughtful prompts. Never before, to the best of my knowledge, had such subjects been teased out and televised on Irish shores; never before had clothing’s ties to identity formation, alongside its natural shaping of social history, been examined in contexts so local to us, evincing fashion as far more than the sum of its parts. Having devoured each half-hour instalment during its initial six-week run, I completed the series with zero doubt that Snáithe’s triple-threat creator, producer and director, Ciara Nic Chormaic, was a groundbreaking force for good – her passionate approach setting the filmic portrayal of Irish fashion on a game-changing course. When Nic Chormaic and I finally crossed paths, exactly 20 two years after Snáithe first erupted onto screens, her soft-spoken reflections were a breath of a fresh air. After 24 months of tireless praise, you’d have forgiven someone for a slight ego swell, but no chance – over the course of our conversation, she never once deviates from quiet confidence. In some ways, Nic Chormaic had been researching for Snáithe her whole life: “I’ve always been interested in the art of fashion, expression, identity – for a long time, I’ve been thinking about it as a subject to explore. I’ve been working in documentaries for 15 years. I worked as a researcher before I became a producer and so, over the years, I would’ve worked on gathering ideas, telling stories. Any time I read about an Irish designer in the past or present, I’d file their name away in my brain.” Having witnessed dismissive attitudes and stereotyping of fashion first-hand, Nic Chormaic was keen to cook up an antidote. “I love how clothes can be a way of presenting how you’re feeling one day, or how they take on a protective nature another day. Because people think of fashion [here] as part of entertainment/style programmes, Snáithe wasn’t the easiest thing to pitch – fashion was harder to sell as a subject, even though there are lots of different themes to explore.” It’s somewhat staggering to think that Snáithe was Nic Chormaic’s directorial debut. Each masterful episode fuses archive footage with insightful, contemporary interviews, each clip attesting to our fertile fashion heritage. Among the diverse figures featured is Perry Ogden – a pioneering fashion photographer, film-maker and veritable Hibernophile, whose arresting work was rooted in ‘realness’ decades before such terms turned buzzy. Nic Chormaic recalls the natural affinity they both felt whilst shooting. “I knew Perry’s work well before Snáithe, obviously – he’d been in my crosshairs for a while,” she chuckles. “The two of us hit it off so well, and I know it’s a word that’s used and reused but, his photographs are just so authentic… so beautiful.” Whilst in the throes of editing, an excerpt from Ogden’s interview struck her. He said that, in fashion, in style, in beauty, we all have a different sense of what is beautiful, and that sense shouldn’t be dictated to by glossy magazines. It was a big takeaway for me – the line of the series, really. What he said just sums it up: he challenges notions of beauty in his work, which I love.” Soon after Snáithe wrapped, Nic Chormaic spent some time in Ogden’s studio discussing the sheer subjectivity of beauty, whilst surrounded by “so many boxes” filled with the photographer’s expansive portfolio. She was ultimately spurred on to “tell him that I’d love to make a film about him, exploring, through his work, fashion photography as an art form, as that’s something I feel so passionately about.” On Ogden’s side, he welcomed another chance to collaborate: “When Ciara came to me and said she’d be interested in making a film about me and my work, I thought that sounded fantastic. I could go off and make my own film about myself, and that would be another thing but, I trusted that Ciara – from having seen her work and the experience of Snáithe, which I thought was a really great documentary series – would do something really interesting.” One Reel Art award, several fashion shoots and countless studio chats later, Skin+Soul – a 60 minute meander through Ogden’s enrapturing work – premiered earlier this