Inspired by Ireland’s beauty from her Co Armagh home to the Wild Atlantic Way, Annie McColgan has launched a beautiful, sustainable fashion collection with a nod to our own linen industry.

Annie, originally from the Portadown area and now living in Magheralin, has been working over recent months on ‘Lore’ – a fabulous new fashion collection.

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placeholder image — Beautiful new fashion collection 'Lore' created by designer Portadown native Annie McColgan at her Magheralin studios.

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Currently her solo exhibition is on in the Island Arts Centre in Lisburn throughout August. It showcases both her debut collection ‘thoughts of home’ which launched last year after her BBC show ‘A Stitch Through Time’ and some pieces from her new collection ‘Lore’ which is launching in September”.

She will also be hosting an embroidery workshop at the end of August.

Annie reveals: “With this collection I present to you an honest and true appreciation of Ireland’s natural beauty and the secrets that it covets. “Through my collection I wanted to harness this intangible feeling by paying tribute to all of the beautiful places I am so lucky to call home from the orchard fields of Co. Armagh to the ragged Cliffs of Donegal.

"On my travels through Ireland I fell in love. In love with our craggy coastlines, our blustery headlands and our illusively enchanting moorlands. I knew I had stumbled upon natural beauty as I had never seen it before. I felt a shift within my being and I knew in that moment I had been irrevocably inspired by what had always been before me.”

She added: “This collection is a sentimental echo of all that I adore. Growing up I have always found solace and serenity in nature and literature alike. My mother, an English teacher, would relish telling me old stories of fairies and folklore before bed. As all children do, the next day, I would delight in the interrogation of this enchanted and magical world I so desperately believed we lived in.”

Annie said she has been inspired by Ireland’s rich cottage industries and its linen industry.

She believes fashion can be ‘handmade, beautiful and luxurious without damaging our natural world, endorsing the slave trade or exploiting others’.

"Furthermore, it can be used to do good and to give back when and where possible; to encourage kindness and let love grow in a world where we have forgotten its importance. That is why with each collection and garment we create, we will donate a percentage of our profits to charity in the hope of extending a helping hand to those in need and to spread kindness and light wherever darkness nestles.”“We are proud to say that all of our fabric is locally sourced and handmade through a make-to-order model, ensuring minimal waste and impact on the environment.

"We are dedicated to creating unique and ethical clothing that is kind to the planet and will stand the test of time,” said Annie.

“We have sourced the highest quality 100% Irish linen, not only for its local legacy but its durable and robust qualities which make it so unique.

"Once Ireland’s most esteemed industries and one of the oldest fabrics in the world, linen is also considered one of the most sustainable fabrics to manufacture. We hope to honour this beloved part of our heritage through our very first Limited Edition collection and give back to local industry.”