A spectacular campaign photographed 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, the striking 2026 campaign from Ireland Fashion Week powered by Visa, has just been unveiled, gathering eight leading figures from across Irish film, music, fashion, sport and culture and placing them amid the extraordinary Atlantic scenery at Roundstone, Connemara.
The launch took place on 18 September, when the hero image for Ireland Fashion Week 2026 was beamed in giant format onto the Convention Centre, followed by a city-wide OOH rollout at 85 Dublin locations.
The creative project, lensed by Damian Foxe, an Irish photographer celebrated internationally, opens 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 programme spanning established names, rising talent, graduates and Ireland’s wider creative community.
Fronting the launch are actor Jamie-Lee O’Donnell; racing driver Max Hart; Irish fashion icon Celia Holman Lee; Ireland Fashion Week Model of the Year Marwa Noelle Ali; musicians Travy and Abdu Huss, who records as KhakiKid; digital creator Lauren Whelan; and actor and model Ivana Miličević.
Taken together, the cast reflects the countless ways Ireland is experienced today. Their stories reach across generations, countries and cultures, yet each is tied to the others by a feeling of home and by a role in shaping Irish life today.
Ashley McDonnell, Founder of Ireland Fashion Week, who was instrumental in casting and producing the campaign, 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 streets, shoreline and working harbour of Roundstone were recast as an arresting fashion landscape. Traditional boat workshops, weather-beaten buildings and the dramatic Connemara coast frame images that feel at once recognisable and surprising, pairing the rugged spirit of Ireland’s west with the polish and ambition found in international fashion editorial.
Discussing both the project 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.
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 spotlight on globally respected Irish designer Sinéad O’Dwyer, whose bold approach to representation, inclusivity and inventive pattern-cutting is remaking contemporary luxury. She has won the Zalando Visionary Award, secured British Fashion Council NEWGEN backing and made the semi-finals of the 2025 LVMH Prize. The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute holds two of her pieces in its collection. Celebrated for her progressive thinking around inclusivity and representation, O’Dwyer is rewriting luxury today via ingenious pattern-cutting and a wider conversation between body and garment.
Brother Wolf by Pádraig Whelehn, Mná by Sarah Plunkett Chadwick, Aoife McNamara, Sasha Donnellan, Bold Golf and RASHHIIID feature elsewhere in the six-day schedule. Established and emerging Irish labels feature in the opening Irish Roots show at St Helen’s, while the graduate show, Damhsa, brings more than 40 designers to the RDS. At 1 Windmill Quarter, The Irish Edit showroom presents a further 30 designers.
More than 20 international publications are due to attend this year, alongside prominent creatives, journalists and models, with international model Coco Rocha also joining. Rocha, who was discovered at 14 while competing in an Irish dance feis, has since walked 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 and working life of Roundstone run through every frame, while the cast embodies an Ireland that prizes its heritage yet keeps moving forward.
Campaign photographer Foxe, Dublin born and London based, has created imagery for international editions of Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar and Vanity Fair, and previously served as Fashion Director at the Financial Times’ HTSI. Returning to his home country for this project, he pairs a world-class fashion sensibility with a close understanding of the nation’s visual identity.
Looks were chosen by stylist Brian Conway from designers participating 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 Lan Nguyen-Grealis led makeup using SOSU Cosmetics.
Visa returns as title sponsor for 2026, supporting Irish designers and creative founders as they scale up, embrace digital commerce and reach new audiences. Tourism Ireland and Dublin City Council also stand behind Ireland Fashion Week, and their backing will count enormously towards this year’s programme.
As much as Coming Home celebrates the Irish landscape, it also declares the ambition of Ireland Fashion Week. The creativity of this country deserves staging with every bit of the scale, assurance and production quality found in any major international fashion capital.
Ireland Fashion Week reveals its schedule for 7 to 12 October 2026
Wednesday, 7 October: Slane Castle hosts the Opening Ceremony
An evening of ceremony and dinner at Slane Castle in Co. Meath opens Ireland Fashion Week, back for a second year with Marks & Spencers to celebrate the designers and creators at the centre of Ireland’s fashion industry, setting the mood for six days of programming.
Under the theme Coming Home: An Island in Motion, Ireland Fashion Week and M&S are connecting Ireland’s worldwide creative influence with a world-class fashion ecosystem on home ground. Together with strategic partners, both are supporting the creative community here as it decides the industry’s next direction.
As M&S marks 100 years in fashion, the evening will acknowledge the brand’s impact on the Irish market, along with its role in developing some of Ireland’s most recognisable fashion figures, at home, in London and beyond.
Running through the opening ceremony is a joint commitment to creativity and craft, with food direction from Irish chef Mark Moriarty and creative styling by Corina Gaffey.
Thursday, 8 October: Irish Roots, then sportswear
The Irish Roots Show at St Helens Hotel in Booterstown, Dublin, opens Thursday’s schedule. Later, the Bold Golf Sportswear Show runs that evening at The Exo Building in Dublin’s Docklands.
Friday, 9 October: Sinéad O’Dwyer plus The Irish Edit
The Irish Edit Showroom takes up residence at 1WML on Windmill Lane, Dublin 2. Sinéad O’Dwyer then stages her show at Dublin City Hall that evening.
Saturday, 10 October: Graduate talent, a showcase and streetwear
Saturday opens with the Damhsa Graduate Show at the RDS Concert Hall, placing new talent firmly in the programme’s spotlight.
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 design
Opening Sunday is the Sasha Donnellan Contemporary Show at Dion Rooftop Restaurant, One Central Plaza, on Dame Street.
Throughout the day, panel discussions run under Visa Presents: Ireland Fashion Week Talks at Medley, inside the Old Irish Times Building in Dublin city centre.
Bringing the day to a close is the MNÁ Fashion Show at The Stapleton in Powerscourt Townhouse Centre.
Monday, 12 October: Mount Juliet and modern heritage
Co. Kilkenny wraps up the week with the Aoife McNamara Modern Heritage Show at Mount Juliet Estate, Thomastown.
From graduate collections right up to shows by long-established designers, the Ireland Fashion Week 2026 programme invites audiences to experience Irish fashion in its entirety and to meet the designers and creatives shaping what comes next.
For more detail on Ireland Fashion Week 2026, visit https://irelandfashionweek.substack.com/
