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.
Ireland Fashion Week powered by Visa has unveiled its arresting 2026 campaign, Coming Home: An Island in Motion, which gathers eight leading names drawn from Irish sport, music, film, culture and fashion amid the extraordinary Atlantic surrounds of Roundstone, Connemara.
A large-scale projection of the Ireland Fashion Week 2026 hero image onto the Convention Centre marked the launch on 18 September, with a city-wide OOH rollout then appearing across 85 Dublin locations.
Photographed by Damian Foxe, the internationally celebrated Irish image-maker, the creative project starts the countdown to Ireland Fashion Week, returning next week from 7 to 12 October 2026 with eight shows and more than 90 designers on the bill, encompassing established labels, rising names, graduates and the wider creative community in Ireland.
Actor Jamie-Lee O’Donnell appears alongside racing driver Max Hart, Irish fashion icon Celia Holman Lee, Ireland Fashion Week Model of the Year Marwa Noelle Ali, the musicians Travy and Abdu Huss (known as KhakiKid), the digital creator Lauren Whelan, and the actor and model Ivana Miličević.
Taken together, the cast reflects the many different ways Ireland is experienced today. Their biographies span generations, nations and cultures, though all of them share a feeling of belonging and a role in forming Irish life as it is now.
Ashley McDonnell, Founder of Ireland Fashion Week, a driving force in casting the campaign and bringing it to production, commented: “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.”
For the shoot, the village streets, the shore and Roundstone’s working harbour became an arresting fashion terrain. Traditional boat-building sheds, weather-beaten buildings and the dramatic Connemara coast frame images that feel at once recognisable and surprising, placing the raw texture of the west of Ireland next to the polish and scale of a global fashion editorial.
On her involvement in the campaign and in 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.
She continued: “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’s Ireland Fashion Week City Hall show puts the focus on Sinéad O’Dwyer, an Irish designer held in high regard worldwide whose forward-looking approach to inclusivity, representation and inventive pattern-cutting is remaking contemporary luxury. A Zalando Visionary Award winner and a British Fashion Council NEWGEN recipient, she reached the 2025 LVMH Prize semi-finals, and two of her designs are currently held by The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute. Celebrated internationally for that forward-thinking position on inclusivity and representation, O’Dwyer is rewriting luxury through innovative pattern-cutting and a wider conversation about body and garment.
Brother Wolf by Pádraig Whelehn, Mná by Sarah Plunkett Chadwick, Aoife McNamara, Sasha Donnellan, Bold Golf and RASHHIIID also join the six-day programme. The opening Irish Roots show at St Helen’s puts both established and newer Irish labels on display, and the graduate show, Damhsa, brings more than 40 designers to the RDS. A further 30 designers will be presented by The Irish Edit showroom at 1 Windmill Quarter.
More than 20 international publications will attend this year, alongside prominent creatives, journalists and models, among them the international model Coco Rocha. Rocha, discovered at 14 while taking part in an Irish dance feis, has gone on to walk for houses including Dior, Chanel and Jean Paul Gaultier.
Devised by Artistic Director David Allen, Coming Home, the IFW 2026 campaign, is built on community, contrast and celebration. The people of Roundstone and their working culture run right through the narrative, and the cast embodies an Ireland proud of its heritage yet never static.
Campaign photographer Foxe, a Dubliner who now lives in London, has published work across the international editions of Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar and Vanity Fair, and previously served as Fashion Director of the Financial Times’ HTSI. Returning home to Ireland for the shoot, he pairs an elite fashion sensibility with an intimate feel for the country’s visual character.
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. The Dylan Bradshaw team created hair using L’Oréal Professionnel, while Lan Nguyen-Grealis led makeup with SOSU Cosmetics.
Visa returns as title sponsor for 2026, backing Irish designers and creative entrepreneurs in building businesses, embracing digital commerce and finding new audiences. Ireland Fashion Week is also supported by Tourism Ireland and Dublin City Council, whose contribution will count for a great deal across this year’s programme.
Coming Home salutes the Irish landscape while serving as a statement of intent for Ireland Fashion Week: Irish creativity should be shown with the production values, scale and confidence found in any of the world’s major fashion capitals.
The 7 to 12 October 2026 programme is revealed by Ireland Fashion Week
Wednesday, 7 October: Opening Ceremony at Slane Castle
A ceremony and dinner that evening at Slane Castle in Co. Meath launches Ireland Fashion Week, staged for a second year with Marks & Spencers, honouring the makers and designers at the core of Ireland’s fashion industry and setting up six days of shows.
Under the theme Coming Home: An Island in Motion, M&S and Ireland Fashion Week are connecting Irish creativity’s worldwide reach with a fashion ecosystem of international standard on home ground. With strategic partners, they are backing the local creative community in determining the industry’s next direction.
As M&S marks 100 years in fashion, the night will acknowledge the brand’s influence on the Irish market and its role in nurturing some of the biggest fashion names this country has given us, across Ireland, in London and well beyond.
The opening ceremony puts craft and creativity side by side, with Irish chef Mark Moriarty leading the food offering and Corina Gaffey on creative styling.
Thursday, 8 October: from Irish Roots to sportswear
The day gets under way with the Irish Roots Show at St Helens Hotel in Booterstown, Dublin. The Bold Golf Sportswear Show then follows that evening at The Exo Building in Dublin’s Docklands.
Friday, 9 October: Sinéad O’Dwyer and The Irish Edit
The Irish Edit Showroom runs at 1WML on Windmill Lane, Dublin 2, and Sinéad O’Dwyer presents her show that evening at Dublin City Hall.
Saturday, 10 October: streetwear, showcases and graduate talent
Saturday begins with the Damhsa Graduate Show at the RDS Concert Hall, putting new talent front and centre in the programme.
The Rashhiiid Showcase follows at the Gerard Byrne Gallery on Trinity Street, and the Brother Wolf Streetwear Show wraps up the day that evening at The Douglas Hyde Gallery in Trinity College Dublin.
Sunday, 11 October: MNÁ, conversations and contemporary design
Sunday opens with the Sasha Donnellan Contemporary Show at Dion Rooftop Restaurant, One Central Plaza, on Dame Street.
Throughout the day, panel discussions run at Medley, in the Old Irish Times Building in Dublin city centre, billed as Visa Presents: Ireland Fashion Week Talks.
The MNÁ Fashion Show at The Stapleton in Powerscourt Townhouse Centre brings the day to a finish.
Monday, 12 October: Mount Juliet and modern heritage
The week finishes in Co. Kilkenny with the Aoife McNamara Modern Heritage Show at Mount Juliet Estate, Thomastown.
From graduate collections to the shows of established designers, Ireland Fashion Week’s 2026 programme asks audiences to explore Irish fashion in its entirety and to seek out the designers and creatives shaping what comes next.
For more on Ireland Fashion Week 2026, visit https://irelandfashionweek.substack.com/
