*By Jesse Scott *
Glamour and grunge collided in London this fashion week as the fiery Sinead Gorey found sartorial inspiration in one of the most unlikely places, the Irish pub. Forget “day to evening,” “cocktails to dinner,” or any of the other transitional terms deeply embedded in our fashion lexicon. Sinead took her protagonists from “pint to dance floor” in a series of ensembles so rambunctious, fun, and unapologetically insouciant that they inspired a yearning for sticky pool tables and half-askew dartboards even as any number of glittering Mayfair afterparties beckoned.
7 For All Mankind’s recent pap-walk-inspired show, the near-undisputed highlight of this New York Fashion Week calendar, proclaimed to the world what many of us already knew. 2006, a.k.a. the era of the exquisitely chaotic and accidentally glamorous party girl, is back. The show drew many Gossip Girl comparisons, a modern personification of Jenny Humphrey hunting down both Blair Waldorf and a fashion career in a gilded world where 16-year-olds sip martinis in hotel bars as they plot each other’s destruction. Personally (team Serena), I always thought Jenny tried too hard. As a teenager, my taste in shows lay deeper down the 2000s party girl rabbit hole: more specifically the quintessentially British Skins and Kayla Scoledario’s profoundly unbothered Effy Stonem, who became my first crush despite communicating through a series of icy stares and a grand total of zero words throughout the entire first season of the show. This Sinead Gorey collection, based in nostalgic pub culture but still layered with the rebellious techno undertones endemic to the seven-year-old brand, was for Skins, and Effy.
Love Letter to the Mythology of British Girlhood
The show space, Crypts on the Green at Clerkenwell Close, could not have been more perfect. A bar with brass beer taps centered the runway, while two pool tables, extremely scuffed and seemingly ready to give out under the weight of both age and memories, served as props for models that walked with a defiant “dare me” swagger. Diverse yet surprisingly complementary aesthetics were mixed with such conviction and worn with such confidence that, like a rockstar spiraling upwards, they worked almost in spite of themselves. The Gorey girl might mix and match thrifted pieces with DIY accessories and coats stolen from a parent’s closet...and become the gravitational center of the room. Formal military-inspired patterns recurred on Looks 4 and 5 in a structured jacket paired irreverently with a mini skirt, tights, and even a bandage dress. Bold fur ushankas, transporting us to a delightful world where the Siberian tundra blend with British rock and roll, highlighted in Looks 6 and 34. Meanwhile, oversized shades, perfect for stumbling out of a smoke and synth-filled warehouse and into the Sunday afternoon sunlight, accessorized the modern rebel on Looks 25 and 26.
Sinead Gorey Autumn/Winter 2026: Looks 4, 5, 6, 25 (Images courtesy of Sinead Gorey)
This season saw Gorey launch a surprise partnership with Desperados. Models swigged the beer while posing on the pool tables, some adorned in “I Love Desperados” crops and tank tops that Gorey described as “equal parts merch, memory, and mischief.” The iconic beer brand also served as the inspiration for bottle-cap accessories recurring on belts, jewelry, and a barely-there leather skirt studded with the words “No Knickers” while conveniently containing a built-in beer koozie. Leather and fur, forever a deadly combination, dominated the collection. But touches of tartan and military braiding made the collection vintage Irish, in a historical sense, as much as it was modern rock and roll.
This show seemed to have been as much fun for Gorey to choreograph as it was for the front row to watch. The evocative show notes, flowing with the passion that can only come from heartfelt lived experiences, effortlessly epitomized the culture of “lipstick-stained pint glasses,” “velvet stools worn thin by decades of gossip,” and “being wedged around a sticky table with your girls on a Friday.” However, they were also extremely self-aware, falling within that blissful and ephemeral state of being summed up by the pithy and poignant refrain “old enough to know better, young enough to do it anyway.” Gorey’s woman, much like the uncontrollable yet always-in-control Effy Stonem, “knows exactly where the night will take her, and dresses accordingly.” Exactly as she should.