A spectacular campaign shot in Roundstone, Connemara stars Jamie-Lee O’Donnell, Celia Holman Lee, Max Hart, Travy, KhakiKid, Lauren Whelan, Marwa Noelle Ali and Ivana Miličević.
Coming Home: An Island in Motion is the title of the striking 2026 campaign just revealed by Ireland Fashion Week powered by Visa, which gathers eight headline figures from Irish sport, culture, music, film and fashion on the extraordinary Atlantic shore at Roundstone, Connemara.
The campaign launched on 18 September, the Ireland Fashion Week 2026 hero image beamed at enormous scale across the Convention Centre, with a city-wide OOH rollout then reaching 85 Dublin locations.
The creative project, shot by Damian Foxe, the internationally acclaimed Irish photographer, starts the countdown to Ireland Fashion Week, which returns next week from 7 to 12 October 2026 with eight shows, more than 90 designers and a line-up that spans household names, fresh talent, graduates plus the country’s broader creative community.
Among the line-up are Irish fashion icon Celia Holman Lee; actor Jamie-Lee O’Donnell; racing driver Max Hart; musicians Travy and Abdu Huss, known as KhakiKid; Ireland Fashion Week Model of the Year Marwa Noelle Ali; digital creator Lauren Whelan; and actor and model Ivana Miličević.
Collectively, the cast mirrors the many different ways Ireland is lived today. Generations, countries and cultures run through their individual stories, yet a sense of home binds them all, as does their part in shaping Irish life now.
Ashley McDonnell, Founder of Ireland Fashion Week, who led much of the campaign’s casting and production, said: “Coming Home: An Island in Motion is a celebration of Irish creativity in all its forms. We have brought together an extraordinary cast spanning fashion, film, music, sport and culture, dressed in Irish design and photographed against the breathtaking landscape of Roundstone.”
“We wanted this to feel both familiar and unexpected. To capture the Ireland we know and love while showing the confidence, diversity and creative energy shaping the country today. Each person involved brings their own story and interpretation of home, but together they represent an Ireland that is proud of its roots and excited about its future.
She went on: “Ireland Fashion Week is ultimately about celebrating the remarkable talent we have here and giving people across the country the opportunity to discover, support and take pride in Irish fashion.”
The shoot turned Roundstone’s streets, shoreline and working harbour into a daring fashion terrain. Disused boat workshops, weather-worn buildings and the dramatic Connemara coastline frame pictures that are simultaneously familiar and startling, setting the raw character of the west of Ireland alongside the gloss and scope of an international fashion editorial.
On her involvement in both the campaign and Ireland Fashion Week 2026, actor Jamie-Lee O’Donnell said: “Fashion has always been a brilliant form of self-expression for me. It can say so much about who you are, where you come from and how you want to present yourself to the world. Ireland is full of fearless, imaginative creatives who deserve to be seen on an international stage.
The actor added: “Being part of this campaign feels incredibly special. The landscape in Connemara is unmistakably Irish, but the fashion and creative direction show a country that is constantly evolving and redefining itself. I’m genuinely proud to help launch it.”
This year the Ireland Fashion Week City Hall show gives the spotlight to internationally respected Irish designer Sinéad O’Dwyer, whose forward-looking take on inclusivity, representation and imaginative pattern-cutting is rewriting luxury for our era. A Zalando Visionary Award winner, she has had British Fashion Council NEWGEN backing and made the 2025 LVMH Prize semi-finals. Two of her pieces are currently held by The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute. Celebrated for the forward-thinking stance she takes on inclusivity and representation, O’Dwyer rethinks modern luxury via ingenious pattern-cutting and a looser, gentler conversation between the body and what covers it.
The six-day programme also features Brother Wolf by Pádraig Whelehn, Mná by Sarah Plunkett Chadwick, Aoife McNamara, Sasha Donnellan, Bold Golf and RASHHIIID. The opening Irish Roots show at St Helen’s showcases Irish labels both established and emerging, while more than 40 designers head to the RDS for the graduate show, Damhsa. A further 30 designers feature in The Irish Edit showroom at 1 Windmill Quarter.
More than 20 international publications are expected in attendance this year, alongside leading creatives, journalists and models, as well as international model Coco Rocha, spotted at 14 as she competed in an Irish dance feis, who has since appeared on the runways of fashion houses including Dior, Chanel and Jean Paul Gaultier.
Community, contrast and celebration underpin the IFW 2026 campaign Coming Home, created by Artistic Director David Allen. Roundstone’s residents and its working life run through the story, with the cast representing an Ireland that treasures its roots yet never stays static.
Born in Dublin and based in London, campaign photographer Foxe shoots for international editions of Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar and Vanity Fair, having formerly held the Fashion Director post at the Financial Times’ HTSI. Coming back home for this shoot, he pairs a world-class eye for fashion with an intensely personal instinct for how the country looks.
Looks were chosen by stylist Brian Conway from designers taking part in Ireland Fashion Week 2026, among them Paul Costelloe, Sasha Donnellan, Triona, Magee 1866, Louis Copeland, Jack Murphy and Alacoque Daly. Hair came from the Dylan Bradshaw team using L’Oréal Professionnel, while makeup was led by Lan Nguyen-Grealis using SOSU Cosmetics.
Back as title sponsor for 2026, Visa helps Irish designers and creative entrepreneurs grow their businesses, embrace digital commerce and find new audiences. Ireland Fashion Week is also supported by Tourism Ireland and Dublin City Council, whose backing makes a considerable difference to the 2026 programme.
Coming Home honours the Irish landscape while also stating the ambition of Ireland Fashion Week: Irish creativity merits a showing with all the scale, confidence and production values found in any major international fashion capital.
The Ireland Fashion Week line-up: 7 to 12 October 2026
Wednesday, 7 October: Slane Castle hosts the Opening Ceremony
Ireland Fashion Week opens with a ceremonial evening and dinner at Slane Castle in Co. Meath, where Marks & Spencers comes back for a second year to salute the makers and designers central to the nation’s fashion industry, and to set the six-day programme in motion.
Under the theme Coming Home: An Island in Motion, Ireland Fashion Week and M&S are connecting Ireland’s global creative influence with a world-class home-grown fashion ecosystem. Working alongside strategic partners, they are empowering creatives here to chart the industry’s next direction.
As M&S marks 100 years in fashion, the evening will recognise the brand’s imprint on Ireland’s market and the part it has played in nurturing several of the country’s best-known fashion figures, in Ireland, London and beyond.
At heart, the opening ceremony runs on a shared devotion to creativity and craftsmanship, its food directed by Irish chef Mark Moriarty and its creative styling by Corina Gaffey.
Thursday, 8 October: Sportswear and Irish Roots
The Irish Roots Show at St Helens Hotel in Booterstown, Dublin starts Thursday off. Later, the Bold Golf Sportswear Show runs that evening at The Exo Building in Dublin’s Docklands.
Friday, 9 October: Sinéad O’Dwyer and The Irish Edit
The Irish Edit Showroom sets up at 1WML on Windmill Lane, Dublin 2, with Sinéad O’Dwyer staging her show at Dublin City Hall that evening.
Saturday, 10 October: Streetwear, showcases and graduates
The Damhsa Graduate Show at the RDS Concert Hall opens Saturday, giving emerging talent a prime position in the programme.
The Rashhiiid Showcase follows at the Gerard Byrne Gallery on Trinity Street, before the Brother Wolf Streetwear Show rounds off the day that evening at The Douglas Hyde Gallery in Trinity College Dublin.
Sunday, 11 October: MNÁ, conversations and contemporary fashion
Opening Sunday is the Sasha Donnellan Contemporary Show at Dion Rooftop Restaurant, One Central Plaza, on Dame Street.
Across the day, Visa Presents: Ireland Fashion Week Talks delivers a programme of panel discussions at Medley, in the Old Irish Times Building in Dublin city centre.
Rounding off proceedings is the MNÁ Fashion Show at The Stapleton in Powerscourt Townhouse Centre.
Monday, 12 October: Mount Juliet and modern heritage
Co. Kilkenny hosts the finale: the Aoife McNamara Modern Heritage Show at Mount Juliet Estate, Thomastown.
Spanning graduate collections through to showings by established names, the 2026 Ireland Fashion Week programme invites audiences to take in Irish fashion as a whole and to meet the designers and creatives defining its next chapter.
For more on Ireland Fashion Week 2026, visit https://irelandfashionweek.substack.com/
