Designer Oran O’Reilly on dressing CMAT: “I never expected to have my work on the album cover"

Despite purchasing his first sewing machine only a few years ago, Dublin designer Oran O’Reilly has gone on to dress the likes of Chappell Roan, The Last Dinner Party, CMAT and Soda Blonde. Most recently, he designed the dress CMAT wears on her forthcoming album, Eurocountry. Sitting across from me in Hot Press HQ, on one of the sunniest days of the year, O’Reilly is still beaming from the opportunity to work with the Irish pop star.

CMAT's Euro-Country

“I never expected to have my work on the album cover,” he says. “The fact that somebody liked my work enough to put it on a cover is crazy. CMAT and I have worked together for years now, and one day she contacted me to create something for her upcoming era. Despite being swamped with final year and having my thesis due that week, I couldn’t say no.

“I figured I could make one look, and she was so grateful.

After that, she sent on a mood board of one specific look. The references had this campy, hyper-glam pop vibe, including Kylie Minogue, as well as Cheryl Cole in ‘Fight For This Love’, the most iconic music video of all time, dare I say.

“In the video, she wears this red and black hood, and that’s when the idea clicked. I went down to the Fabric Counter in Stoneybatter to get materials and made it in two days. Now the cover is out, and I can’t believe any of it. I was coming home from college one day and saw the cover on a billboard on Henry Street. It’s bonkers.”

With their gossamer mountains of tulle, taffeta and chiffon, O’Reilly’s designs are the stuff of fairytales. Whether in the screen printed gowns of old Hollywood starlets or the modish trends of the 1960s, O’Reilly’s creations also boast big Irish influence. If you were to pinpoint the exact moment local turns universal, you’d discover the mindset O’Reilly operates from.

Oran O'Reilly. Photo: Abigail Ring

“When I’m working with an Irish client, whether that be CMAT or Nell Mescal, I feel there’s no escaping my Irishness in the creative process,” O’Reilly offers. “Of course, there are so many motifs in the culture and I think it’s so beautiful that people really embrace it.

“But sometimes, I feel being Irish isn’t always this heavy-handed symbolism. A while back, I printed Countess Markievicz, from the 1916 Rising, on a silk Georgette dress. She’s a figure that really sticks out in my mind. Another very Irish thing I love is the horse painting in Dublin Airport’s Terminal Two. I love it so much. It’s these little cultural things that aren’t necessarily a claddagh or trinity motif, but something more unique and broader. That painting is honestly as important to me as the claddagh.

“I’m currently working on a collection, based on an Italian text, that honours my ancestors, and especially my great granny, who moved to Ireland from Italy and opened a religious shop. So I’m finding similarities between my two countries, such as Kinsale cloaks and the Italian mantilla. I just really love to represent, and interpolate thoroughly Irish aesthetics and silhouettes in my own way.”

O’Reilly also found inspiration in the world around him, owing much of his creative outlook to Peter O’Brien, who also was his lecturer at IADT.

“He’s going to hate me for saying this,” says O’Reilly, “but he is probably my favourite designer. He’s Irish and went to Central Saint Martins and then Parsons in New York, before becoming the head designer of Chloe and loads others in Paris in the ’90s. It’s crazy to think he was the head of all these fashion houses, but he’s an Irish man.

“It certainly makes you feel a sense of pride. Sometimes I feel that Irishness is set aside in terms of the fashion world, but there’s a real surge lately of Irish designers finally getting their due praise, like Jonathon Anderson at Dior or Seán McGirr at Alexander McQueen.”

New Moon.

While pursuing a degree in production design, O’Reilly discovered a medium upon which to cast his inspirations, many of which included film noir classics and mid-century sensibilities.

From prairie dresses with Isabelle Adjani’s face screen printed on the bodice, to medieval hoods and corsets, his designs straddle the line between mythic and modern. Realism is not the word that springs to mind with folklore, but O’Reilly is a master of wearable fantasy, a way of making the esoteric feel pragmatic.

With this, the designer expresses a love of Ireland in his work. By stitching his very existence into the seams of his garments, O’Reilly makes practical use of his Irishness, something that can be adorned and showcased on the body. When I ask him his favourite place in Ireland, he unsurprisingly identifies a spot that balances beauty, lore and utility.

“I would have to go with Knock, the pilgrimage site in Mayo. Apparently, the Virgin Mary appeared there. At any rate, I find it so relaxing, there’s something so unique and special. It’s mad that you can drive to a place like that. The original wall is still there and there’s loads of shops with religious accoutrements.

“One of my prized possessions are the rosary beads I got there. That shrine in Knock is so tranquil. People go there with such respect and the energy stays like that. There’s no other intention for it to be anything but a place where you meditate and think.”

In creating his designs, he consults a number of classic Irish silhouettes, made from material he sources in Dublin, a city which he says boasts a buzzing fashion scene. Naturally, I’m curious to ask about his favourite shops in town.

“Honestly, any charity shop on Capel Street,” Oran beams. “Casa is definitely my favourite, with their Euro rail, but also Lucy’s Lounge. You’ll always find something in either of those places. Drury Street is a great spot, too. I love shopping for jewellery at New Moon in George’s Arcade, or Om Diva and Jenny Vander.

“It’s really amazing to see these locally-owned Irish design shops doing so well. It doesn’t feel as niche to shop Irish in Dublin anymore. Ruth at Om Diva is especially leading on that front, she loves to give Irish designers a platform and voice.”

As a figure of the Irish design revival himself, O’Reilly stands among a fierce bunch who are defying the draw of bigger cities, for one simple reason: they aren’t Dublin. You may know the James Joyce quote,

“When I die, Dublin will be written in my heart” – and when you hear O’Reilly share that same sentiment, you can’t help but believe him.

“Of course, It’s hard to be a young person doing freelance creative work,” he notes. “I’ve looked at London and Paris, and I’ve visited them with the intention of possibly living there. But nothing can compare to Dublin. I don’t know what it is. Not to get into the metaphysics of it, but there’s an ancestral energy here. It’s also the people, the culture, everything. I love it here. You can always leave Dublin, but Dublin doesn’t leave you, and I truly believe that.”

• Check out Oran’s designs on Instagram @oranjaurelio.

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