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Clockwise from opposite: Andrew Bell; Rebecca Mar
sden, photo: Rachel Hardwick; Sinead O’Dwyer, photo: Ottilie Landmark; Colin Horgan available to me in the West of Ireland, I had so many ideas and almost nobody to execute them with… This must be the biggest, most taboo secret of my life (!) but I used to take my sister’s Bratz dolls and use them as models. I got to creatively experiment as much as I wanted, starting to understand how photos and posing worked, which helped me comprehend the main tools and techniques I use today.” An indisputable girl wonder, Aoife Dunne (24) started spearheading her multi-hyphenate career (creative director, stylist, set designer, installation artist) ahead of reaching adolescence, propelling herself far beyond a life commandeered by textbooks and PE. “At the age of 12 I started an online magazine, which was my first real launch into entrepreneurship. I had over 20 contributors from all over the world writing for the magazine, who I had become friendly with through an online forum. Looking back, it seems crazy to me how I managed to design the logo, the style of the magazine, coordinate all of these writers, ‘edit’ the content, create the visuals and then promote each issue at such a young age – I definitely used the Internet and online community as an escape from my routine-driven school life”. While this trio of wunderkinds occupy difis your relationships. It’s too easy to spend days on end in your studio with no human contact – a balance I’m still working on!” Even as he frequented London Fashion Week from his early teens onwards, scoring his first feature on Fashionista aged 16, McLauchlan remained reasonably guarded about his teenage “hobby” – having shared Sanguine Style with a handful of close friends, he went public with his peers at the end of secondary school. “I never really connected with others my age who engaged with fashion as a career or a hobby… I’m not against making friends through fashion, but I like the idea of having a world separate to it.” In the space of several years, each of these ferent facets of the fashion industry (Dunne, in particular, staggers an array of mediums within her work), some defining characteristics tie together all three. Alongside their shared thirst for creative graft, the Internet has summoned a lifechanging gateway into their careers – without it, McLauchlan says, his body of work wouldn’t exist – and has combatted the fact that, away from computer screens, they didn’t encounter creatives of a similar age. Dunne is especially vocal on this subject, praising the positive side of digital platforms as a means “of connecting with like-minded individuals”, comforting her in times of creative isolation. She willingly charts that sense of insularity through her recent work, In Lacuna; a large-scale digital installation spawned from “inherent dissociation of digital simulation from the physical world… A huge sacrifice that comes with being an artist Paul McLauchlan sanguinestyle.com @sanguinestyle Eoin Greally eoingreally.com @eoingreally Aoife Dunne aoifedunne.com @efadone Dean Ryan McDaid notanothertheagency.com @notanotheragency industry-goers has procured an array of carefully-chosen projects, their output garnering domestic and overseas gravitas. In the first half of 2019, Greally swiped backstage-photography gigs across LFW – clocking up some interesting clients to revisit come September – whilst shooting and assisting on campaigns and shows, stockpiling credits with Joanne Hynes and Helen Steele. Landing the lead editorial for Stellar’s July issue, his portfolio is set to skyrocket – a recent project saw him style and shoot Ferdia Gallagher, the 19-year-old head-turner who walked in Celine’s inaugural menswear show. McLauchlan’s industry capital is nothing less than cemented: what started as “purely a personal passion project” has catapulted him into The New York Times, Vogue Italia and Twin magazine, to name but a few. To list what Dunne has achieved by 24 would merit the entire magazine’s worth of word count, so focusing on endeavours yet-to-debut is a safer bet: by the end of this year, she’ll have magicked more solo shows in Dublin, Paris and Vancouver. Having myself commenced article-writing at the age of 17, I was keen to capture varied viewpoints on youth and industry. Did these trailblazers don adolescence like a badge of honour, Tavi Gevinson style, or did they seek to conceal it; fearing their 15-year-old selves, however astute, simply wouldn’t be taken seriously? Dunne falls into the latter category – a perspective I readily relate to – and felt forced to lie about her age for years, “because I knew that employers/collaborators would have huge reservations about being directed by a 16-yearold kid. I was honest about my age at 21, when I had developed an extensive portfolio.” Conversely, McLauchlan was more transparent in his approach, considering his only age-centric impediment to be that, “I [couldn’t] just pick up shop and move to London to work in a newspaper or magazine.” When Greally began interning in Dublin, his age and experience-related worries were soon put to rest, largely thanks to his venue of choice: the inclusive, pioneering NotAnother Agency, who has long-championed its legion of young contributors. “In other environments, it can be hard for established industry professionals to embrace young people at first, but you have to start somewhere – NotAnother had an excellent way of showing me that. They fully understood where I was coming from, having started their own companies at such a young age.” This mindset is seconded by Dean Ryan McDaid, co-founder of NotAnother, who regards mentorship, most refreshingly, as a twoway street: “A lot of people in creative industries feel that experience is more important than raw talent, that they have nothing to learn from younger generations. Some of the people that Ireland loses – talented, young creative artists deciding to move away – achieve great success internationally, whilst getting little-to-zero look in when they were here. It stagnates the Irish creative industry. It keeps us in a cycle.” Beyond our shores, the industry-at-large has placed importance on nurturing creative youth, but it would seem this island still has to play catchup. “I think we bring a fresh perspective to the table,” states Greally, reflecting on the industrywide benefits of embracing new generations – boosting employability, by consequence, for teenage prodigies. “We have a different view on the world than what the sector’s veterans [possess], because we’re outsiders, challenging how the system works. We’re digitally-savvy, and really emphasise diversity in our work. Thanks to [those values], the fashion industry is finally opening up.” 21