UnMute the Media

Niamh Harrington is a versatile designer heavily inspired by subcultures and societal issues. Her graduate collection ‘unmute the media’ is a unisex collection exploring pieces that blur the lines between menswear and womenswear. Initially being inspired by themes such as feminism and pop culture, looking deeper into how women are sexualised by the media and visualising this into contemporary garments. The phrase ‘UnMute the Media’ references how women’s voices aren’t recognised in pop culture and the impact that has had on society over the years. The rising popularity of more oversized silhouettes inspired by 90s trends and typically male garments like ‘boyfriend jeans’ are also accounted for in this collection as the designer has encapsulated these silhouettes. The combination of print, tailoring and leatherwork and a monochromatic colour palette with flashes of pink increases the impact of the pieces on consumers. A graphic print was developed for this collection inspired by 1990s magazine covers, starting with cyanotypes, experimenting with feminist artist’s work like Barbara Kruger and Judy Chicago which were then edited and developed into a two-colour print used throughout the collection, mainly in the two-piece suit. It was important that this collection made a statement and using print combined with oversized silhouettes.