Galway-based designer to showcase her work at Ireland's Biggest Fashion Show
A Galway-based designer – whose designs have married her own life journey from the Ghana’s coastal capital city of Accra to a different Atlantic view from Barna – is one of the top talents taking part in a very special charity fashion show at the end of this month.
Virtue Shine, founder of Emerald & Wax and co-owner of Ro & Vee alongside business partner Ro Chigozie in Barna, will showcase her unique designs at the tenth annual ARC Fashion Show to raise funds for ARC Cancer Support Centres.
The show takes place on Thursday, March 27, at the RDS Concert Hall, and will be officially opened by best-selling author and breast cancer survivor Cathy Kelly.
Emerald & Wax is characterised by Virtue’s bright colours and prints, inspired by the African wax prints she saw in her grandmother’s fabric warehouse in Ghana during her childhood.
She herself describes them as wearable art.
“Emerald & Wax is born out of my passion for African wax prints that was ignited when as a child I used to sit on my grandmother’s lap in her wholesale African fabric warehouse in Accra,” she says.
“I still remember running around the warehouse surrounded by these incredibly beautiful, vibrant and bold patterns and colours amidst lots of laughter and banter.
“These African wax print fabrics are a fondly remembered piece of my childhood that I carry with me always, a piece of my Ghana.
But her designs are also heavily influenced by her time in New York, where she grew up from the age of fifteen until moving to Ireland with her Dublin-born husband 14 years ago.
“After moving to New York in my late teens, I grew to love Japanese design and architecture, and represents a strong presence in my collections,” she says.
“By combining these Japanese design elements with the unique African wax print fabrics, each piece becomes a bespoke, original and wearable work of art.
“I draw on this Ghanaian upbringing to bring the art and colour of traditional African wax prints and my admiration of Japanese architecture with their clean lines to European design, delivering what I like to describe as wearable art for today’s confident woman and also for women looking to bring colour into their everyday lives and wardrobes,” she explains.
Virtue describes her collections as ‘extremely wearable and add both colour and style to any capsule wardrobe’.
“It’s been a huge privilege to be able to have my Ghanaian heritage reflected in my designs. I also take pride in marrying Irish Tweed and African print fabrics to create tangible pieces that is an ode to my own journey of making Ireland my home, while remaining proud of my heritage and culture,” she says.
She met her now-husband, Dublin-born software engineer Billy Shine, in an Irish pub on Thanksgiving in 2001, and they decided to move to Ireland in 2010. The couple have four children — Cillian, Fiachra, Liam,and Cathal.
Virtue is a self-taught fashion designer. While living in New York, she built up a collection of fabrics, trimmings and accessories, but she didn’t know then that making would become a huge part of her life.
It was after moving across the Atlantic that this became more than a hobby
“I got into the crafting community, and I was introduced to Mothers Who Make. There were knitters, sewers and artists. It was also the only way of me connecting with other people and with other mothers because I didn’t know anybody in Ireland,” she has said.
“I started doing craft fairs with my cushion covers, tote bags, scarves and wrap skirts, and that’s really how it started to take off.”
For the ARC Fashion Show, she joins 25 other Irish designers, seven milliners, and five accessories’ designers – showing their designs to an 800-strong audience.
The show’s emotional highlight will be the inspiring ‘ARC Angels’ segment, where cancer survivors join professional models on the catwalk to unveil bespoke creations under the captivating theme ‘In My Wildest Dreams’.
This is a particularly poignant moment for family and friends in attendance, eagerly awaiting their ARC Angels’ catwalk debuts.
This is a night of fashion, courage, and unforgettable moments not to be missed! Tickets cost €65 (plus booking fees) and can be purchased via eventmaster.ie. All proceeds support ARC’s free services for those affected by cancer.
Pictured: Virtue Shine…mixing Irish and African influences with a dash of the Big Apple.