Sweet charity

For different people, clothes serve different purposes.
For some, it’s important to make a statement about your personal wealth. For others clothes serve to highlight that they're ahead of the trends. Comfort’s also a popular rationale. For kooky Dublin solo artiste Nina Hynes, however, clothes are part of the atmosphere. Her words, not mine.
“Like, onstage, I’ll have lights and different props, and clothes are just an extension of them,” she explains on the way to the Hot Press shoot. “My style is completely dictated by what mood I want to be in – or am in. I generally wear these stilettos around the house, especially at breakfast. They’re my breakfast stilettos.”
As well as her mood, Hyne's choice of clothes is influenced by the weather: “If it’s grey outside, I’d wear mute, autumnal colours and if it’s sunny I’d wear bright colours. I love the primary colours and I love bright pink. You immediately feel happy if you’re wearing fun colours.
“Ultimately, it’s all about the material and the way it feels on me," she says. "If I go into a charity shop, the first thing I do is scan for colours I’m attracted to, and then I have to check the material and make sure it feels nice. It’s as easy as that. Even in charity shops, where there’s plenty of things that I wouldn’t like, I can know if I’m going to buy something in two minutes.”
Although Hynes is very into her clothes, she’s not, in fact, a shopoholic. She claims to go on very few shopping expeditions, instead popping into places as she passes them. “And I don’t just shop at charity shops,” she clarifies. “I’m not a snob. I love TopShop and the other high street stores.”
When I enquire about her favourite piece of clothing, I was not expecting the answer: “A fluffy white collar”. Still, there it is! It's her favourite item “because it feels cosy, like there’s a rabbit around my neck.
“I don’t have one style," she adds. "It changes drastically. I might wake up tomorrow and wonder why I could ever have worn what I wore today, and then – the day after – fall in love with it again!
“The only thing my clothes have in common is that they reflect my humour – I never take myself too seriously. Because of that, I don’t care if I look stupid. I see photos of when I was 14, and I looked like Robert Smith from The Cure: I had back-combed hair, dark eyes and white makeup. I wouldn't do it again but it doesn’t worry me. Clothes are just clothes and I’ve got my arms and legs and I can sing – and that’s all I care about.”