Joanne Hynes graduated in 2001 with an MA in Womenswear from London’s Central Saint Martins College. The Joanne Hynes label was officially launched in 2003 and her work has since been shown at Fashion Weeks in Paris, London, Hong Kong and Tokyo as well as being featured in Vogue, Elle, The Sunday Times Style, Wallpaper and L’Official to name just a few. She’s dressed artists such as PJ Harvey, Sinead O Connor, Daphne Guinness and Elodie Bouchez. She’s developed the “Joanne Hynes for Topshop” range that was sold at the flagship in Oxford Circus and in Topshop Dublin. In 2006, she was awarded “Brown Thomas Irish Designer of the Season” and her collections continue to go from strength to strength. We caught up with this beacon of talent and intriguing designer…
Describe your style in five words?
Excessive. Conflicting. Fragmented. Automatic. Chameleon-like.
What’s your beauty essential?
Right now it is pink hair dye, I go to the hairdressers to have it done they mix it to my color.
What item could you not live without?
My Joanne Hynes work bag. It’s the shape of a plastic poly shopping bag that you get in a regular supermarket. It is like a regular shopping bag but in leather. It is functional luxury.
If your house was on fire and you’d only time to save one thing, what would it be?
My engagement ring. I take it off every night and leave it beside my bedside. Not a good idea. I like the ritual of putting it on every morning. It reminds me of good memories and a time in my life.
Most desired fashion item – what’s top of your wish list at the moment?
Antique jewellery, as always.
Best style tip?
Style is about reading ones aura, almost like seeing their history. The kind of life they have lived will be expressed through their choice of clothes and their face more to the point. This morning in the Méridien in New Delhi, I saw an amazing looking woman, she was 53 years old. She looked like she had lived an interesting life. She was wearing very short khaki shorts and light creased denim shirt. She looked wonderful in the context of all the luxury of the hotel, perfectly in our own presence. Her facial expressions, expressed her life and her work. She spoke to me and it turned out that she is also a designer, based in Spain. We spent a long time talking. She has lived an amazing life and is now starting all over again after taking a few years out to travel and research. She had a strong aura. The best style tip is to live an interesting life, travel and open your mind and this will be expressed in the way you carry yourself and the way you move in public. It’s not something you can fake. Style cannot be bought or made up on nothing. No matter how much clothes one buys or accessories it’s really about your state of mind. You can wear anything -it’s the way you wear it. I recently had my bag lost at the airport so I wore my husband’s shirts for a few days it was fantastic, I belted them with embellished belts and mixed them up with great sandals. I made it work because it made total sense to do so. It worked well because it made sense to me. I designed them for him, they have very tiny collars and are in cotton, it helped that I liked them a lot.
What’s in your handbag right now?
A travel calculator, a large bottle of Evian, three mobile phones for traveling, a wallet with sterling and dollars and euros, my passport, a mobile phone charger, a magazine, Chanel red lipstick called “Enthusiast”, three black felt tip pens (I detest blue pens and ban them from my studio). A small mirror. My green silk neck scarf that I take everywhere with me. A Meridian pencil and a gold leather drawing book for ideas. My camera.
Who is your style-crush?
Marlene Dietrich.
Worst and/or best shopping experience? The best of course is Tokyo, especially the Comme des Garcons and the Prada store and all of the little avant-garde shops. It is truly experiental shopping. In London I love Conduit Street area and Dover Street. The worst shopping experience was last Wednesday in Dubai. I didn’t realize that I was dehydrated. So when I got on to board the plane I had to be taken off in a wheelchair to board the next flight! They looked after me like a princess though. I felt like Princess Haya of Jordan when I boarded the next flight! I forgot to enough drink water.
Best high street store or boutique?
Uniglow, A wear, Reiss.
Favourite place to shop?
I love shopping in Dublin when I am there, because it is so unbelievably easy to get around. Brown Thomas has a fantastic edit and all of the small boutiques around Ireland have some great finds. Dublin also has some great jewellery stores and vintage stores.
Fashion on the web?
I don’t really shop on line so much. When I do shop, which is rare these days, I like the tangibility and the experience of shopping. The rush of walking out with something you love.
What’s been your worst fashion moment?
Putting pink neon belts over neon yellow biker tops when about nine. I then went on to wear very pale white make up for most of my teens when I was in the DIY Goth period. I call it the black period. I still adore black but I love the power of strong colour.
What era of style would you most like see return to fashion?
I would like to have seen craftsmen making Victorian elliptical cage crinoline under skirts and corsets from boning. I cannot see it coming back to fashion but it would be wonderful to have cultural workshops where these crafts and techniques are brought back. I have a fascination with anything that is extremely difficult to make. Pieces that require artisan production and making attract me. Some of my dresses take days to make and this is my true passion.
Finally, what do you want your style to say about you?
I honestly don’t think about my style coming together as a look. I respond by wearing things I like and I put them together according to my lifestyle. Its automatic really and responsive to where I am in the world and what is in my suitcase or perhaps I may have picked up something along the way. I travel a lot so I dress from a suitcase 75% of the year. I like to express but I am also private. The worst thing is to totally figure someone out-as David Lynch says-“Go figure”. I get bored easily and like to play around with proportions and colors. I see it as daily experiments that feed my work. We live in an age where everything has to be understood and explained in a very literal & direct way. I always ask why do we have to understand everything? We don’t need answers, or theories or definitions. We need fluidity, expression, questioning and cultural freedom. I am a big fan of the physicist Professor Stephen Hawking, he says “in my mind I am free”. There are no answers only questions. I like this idea. Thank You.
Joanne Hynes Winter 2010 Collection is available from Brown Thomas Dublin and stockists around the country. For more, log onto www.joannehynes.com.
Images courtesy of Anthony Woods Photography; Kieran Harnett.
